When I was talking with my friend last week, I was very happy because she never touched her smartphone while we are talking at a cafe.
Nowadays, it is very difficult to find a person who focuses on the conversation without looking at a smartphone, and finding one of my friends is this type of rare person, and we were talking about this topic for quite a while, so I decided to write a blog post about it.
Why using a phone while talking to someone is extremely rude.
To say it short, using a smartphone while talking to others is very rude in my opinion.
The reason why I exaggerate this a lot is that smartphones or any other devices are meant to be addictive so if you do not consciously put them away, then you will naturally check your smartphone.
When you scroll the social media timeline or even when you check the phone, your brain releases dopamine; not too much amount but the amount that many people can crave for consistently.
( resource from Piedmont )
The point that I want to insist on in this paragraph is that since the phone is made to be very addictive, then we are the ones who should pay attention not to checking often especially when we are with people around us.
Unless you have something important comes up while you are with your friends, then, personally I do not see the reason why people wanted to check their smart while they are with the people.
Personally, when I’m with my friends, and I know that some important message from someone else may pop up, I honestly tell my friends about it so that friends won’t be offended by me checking my smartphone.
Or the other solution you can try out is to tell a person that you are communicating via messenger that you will be away from your phone for a couple of hours.
This method is very polite for both your friends and the person to who you are talking the messenger.
The important point here is to focus on something you are doing right now.
If you’re with your friends, I personally think you should focus on talking with your friends because it’s simply polite and more fun.
How to put your smartphone away when you are with your friends
If you have a problem managing yourself not to use it while talking to other people, I have some suggestions that you can do easily.
The first suggestion is to turn off the smartphone when you meet your friends.
Once I had the same problem, and I never realised that until someone pointed out that I was checking my smartphones often.
I was physically with my friends at a café but I wasn't there psychologically.
You may think like “I don’t have to do this. I can manage myself by myself”, but so many people fail in this step because the habit of checking smart is still with you so your habitual routine cannot prevent you from using the smartphone.
Then the easiest idea is to make your smartphone the least fun by turning off the power.
The second suggestion is to hand your smartphone to your friends while you are with them.
The reason why I have written as my second suggestion is because if you are good enough to handle yourself by only turning off the power of the smartphone, then you don’t need to do this.
However, I sometimes see a person who is really addicted to a smartphone so the second suggestion is for those types of people.
If you think you feel anxiety if you do not have your smartphone with you, then the second suggestion is for you to stay away from a smartphone.
Some tips that you can try to stay away from your phone
If you have a problem putting your smartphone away, then I have some exciting blog posts that I have written in the past, so as your reference that you can try to stay away from your phone, please read the below blog posts.
An easy social media detox introduction for everyone
How to quit social media for one month with 4 easy steps
This is for you if you want to stay away from social media a step by step.
Holiday & weekend digital detox is the easiest way to start a digital detox.
This is for you who want to start the sustainable digital detox challenge.
Extreme digital detox challenge “Unplug the wifi before you sleep”
This is for you if you have huge trouble sitting in front of your computer for a long time and do not know how to stop it.
A simple digital detox method: 13 hours rule
13 hours rule is so easy that I think everyone can start from here.
Thanks for reading and I hope this post was informative to you.