"I'm going to have to call you back...."

[Mynock]

Aviate
Navigate
Communicate

think more like that and you stay out of trouble
note that communicate is LAST thing you do

He did manage the aviate part.

[Sydney]

There are definitely days that I don't think the convenience of cell phones are worth the costs. And not just in terms of driving everywhere. It seems like some people are very much using them as a proxy for the social time they really want to have, but have significant amounts of (perceived) trouble scheduling.

Specifically, I'm talking things like talking on their phones while running the very important errand of grocery shopping. I've lost track of the number of times I've almost been run over by someone talking on their phone, getting something off the shelf, then backing up/turning/moving without checking the space because they're absorbed in their social time substitute.

Why, yes, I understand that your circle of friends is now scattered over a 30-mile area of the metropolitan area we live in. Yes, I understand that trying to schedule face time with those same friends, even on a one-to-one basis, can be an exercise in futility. And I definitely understand that, even if it's no longer true, that sometimes it was a matter of not being able to afford to get together, even in one's own house. But that's really not an excuse to talk on the phone while shopping, even if it's technically possible.

I've made the observation in terms of the value of my female time in the real world, versus doing it virtually, where the ratio was at minimum 3 to 1 in favor of real world. I can imagine that part of the problem I run into with the cell phone yakkers is similar, where they have to spend that much more time doing so to get the same effective value they need, which means they wind up yakking at the supermarket in order to get it. And yes, I do get that some extroverts really do need what, to my introverted tendencies, is an obscene amount of social time. I only really get irritated with it when it actually interferes with my ability to get anywhere, especially in the supermarket.