Put Down Your Phones!

[Orange Team]

I've had it happen a few times where the people in the row in front of me on a ride are constantly Interneting on their bright LCD screens the whole time. It's kind of annoying.

 

[brattyme]

We sit and talk for all our meals and I like it like that.

One note about the texting/surfing: shortly after WDW offered free WiFi I noticed many guests were now walking while surfing.
I am not the tallest gal, so I got pushed around even more than before.

 

[Radiorox]

The new app is cool in some aspects. The ride time section is cool if you do not want to haul yourself across the park only to find a 60 minute wait. But, I prefer to be phone free. Not that I leave it at the hotel but, I usually do not check it much unless a friend texts me. For that matter, when I am on vacation, I try to limit the people I get in touch with because I don't want to know about the outside world.

 

[larryz]

I agree and I posted something similar in hopes of planting a seed that when you are out with your family, put the electronics away and live in the moment you're in.

I got a ton of comments saying "Mind your own business" "Don't worry about what other people are doing" "I use my phone for apps for wait times- there is nothing wrong with that" etc etc etc

Totally missed the point and just furthered my opinion on the topic.

STOP LIVING BEHIND A SCREEN!

STOP WORRYING ABOUT WHO YOU AREN'T WITH!

STOP POSTING YOUR EVERY MOVE WHILE "LIVING"!

Let the hateful comments begin

I'll vote for you... what are you running for?

 

[smallblackstars]

I think this is seen all over, not just in Disney. Sometimes I am sure it is people with work commitments trying to keep on top of a workload while they are away but I also think a lot is people glued to Facebook, Twitter etc. If this is what people want to do then that is up to them but personally I have not spent a small fortune to go to Disney World to be constantly looking at my phone. I really hate taking my phone for anything other than the alarm clock but I think the new app will be good for checking wait times without walking across the parks to find out, I would prefer to be phone free though.

 

[iheartdisney]

Eh, I've seen parents do worse things than hand their kid an ipod on vacation.

 

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

We are a family of 3 - 2 adult and a 13 year old girl - we have an almost unheard of number of electronic devices:

- ONE cell phone total - we can call people, we can text, it has NO games!

- ZERO "I" anything

- ONE computer total - it is a laptop It does not come to Disney with us.

- None of us are on Facebook

- ONE TV it is in the living room along with our DVD player.

- We have a Wii and DD has an older DS to play games on.

if you see us on the phone at Disney it's because my parents have called me to check in or we've called them (they keep our animals while we're gone).

Hopefully almost everyone out there is still breathing - we're one of those strange families that really likes to be with each other.

 

[Love Tink]

Hopefully almost everyone out there is still breathing - we're one of those strange families that really likes to be with each other.

Uh oh! What's you're daughter doing right now, while you stare at this SCREEN? (Wow, more than 2,700 posts...I hope she can recover from your neglect.)

I'm so glad my whole family hates each other, so we're allowed to use modern technology. (Those are the only two available options, right: either eschew technology almost completely or admit that you're just using it to avoid your family?)

 

[Sandy1892]

I wonder if the art of conversation is dying, on my last trip to Disney we were waiting for the bus from Epcot to POR, ahead of us was a honeymoon couple. They spent the whole time texting, I thought how sad if they don't talk to each other now what happens in 10yrs.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

We are sort of in the middle of the road. We all have cell phones & text but they're not smart phones & we're not constantly on them. Our kids are 16 & 13. One is on FB, the other hates it. I have the Disney app on my ipod touch but usually don't think to bring it besides killing time on the plane ride.

I have friends whose kids cannot tolerate a 5 min ride without some sort of game to be occupied with. That's their prerogative.

I don't think it's a "generation" or age thing either. I work in mammography and have had 70+ yr old women pull their breast off the plate the second their phone rings because "that might be my daughter!" Hmmm... do the math, we're not talking a little girl getting of the school bus & no mommy home. Their daughter would be 30-40. Whatever. Maybe there's some family emergency. Who am I to judge? but we do reserve the right to escort a pt to the waiting room and take another pt if one needs to stay on their phone. Some things certainly are more important than a mammogram.

 

[mefordis]

So many people on this board are up in everyone else's business. It is very astonishing.

 

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

Uh oh! What's you're daughter doing right now, while you stare at this SCREEN? (Wow, more than 2,700 posts...I hope she can recover from your neglect.)

QUOTE]

actually she was playing with her LEGO building her version of the Tower of London. Right now we're watching the news and discussing the Trayvon Martin verdict

 

[ArwenMarie]

I think I'll bite. If my parents realized that my brother or I were kicking/stomping on someone/being obnoxious, then they stopped us, even if they were reading the guide book (we are both in our 30s and this was before the technology explosion). I don't think technology is a good enough excuse to condone bad behavior.

I don't see what your comment has to do with my comment. She is judging other families, you are talking about something your parents would have done within their own family.

Anyway, hindsight is 20/20 and it is easy to judge parents today from the position of being twenty years out of the trenches, and it is easy to gloss over your own parenting with a wash of rosy nostalgia.

Specifically, it is very easy for someone with adult children now to be judgmental on a topic like this when these specific challenges weren't around when she was raising her children twenty years ago.

 

[ArwenMarie]

So many people on this board are up in everyone else's business. It is very astonishing.

Lots of smug too.

 

[angierae]

This happened to us not that long ago...mom, dad and 2ish year old daughter. She was sitting at a local restaurant playing on an iPhone. I assumed it was mom's or dad's and didnt think much of it. Throughout the meal though, both mom and dad pulled out their own iphones! The kid had her own iphone and she was 2! I love living in Washington DC, people have a lot of disposable cash!

Most people I know hand down old iPhones to be used as itouches by small kids, they aren't buying them new for them.

 

[juliebug1997]

Anyway, hindsight is 20/20 and it is easy to judge parents today from the position of being twenty years out of the trenches, and it is easy to gloss over your own parenting with a wash of rosy nostalgia.

My parents never talked about taking me out of a restaurant when I couldn't behave at the age of 3. They talked about being embarrassed and apologizing to other patrons.

Also, aren't you in turn judging how they raised their children? Or how my parents raised me? I routinely tell my DH to put his phone away when we sit down at a restaurant. Am I a horrible wife for wanting my husband to think that any discussion we might have while interacting (oh, the horror!) might be more entertaining than whatever book he's reading on his phone? Apparently so in your eyes. You have your judgy pants on too just like a lot of us here.

 

[mefordis]

Uh oh! What's you're daughter doing right now, while you stare at this SCREEN? (Wow, more than 2,700 posts...I hope she can recover from your neglect.)

QUOTE]

actually she was playing with her LEGO building her version of the Tower of London. Right now we're watching the news and discussing the Trayvon Martin verdict

Shouldn't you be giving her your undivided attention while having a discussion with her, rather than typing on the Dis? You sound like one of these people you are complaining about!

- Watching the news
- Talking to your daughter
- Posting on the Dis forum

 

[Bullseye]

What is this mind your own business business? When has it become forbidden to make observations of something that has become increasingly obvious and commonplace? If the OP had come up to you in line or to your table and remonstrated you for placing your electronics over and above your family, then you would have a perfect right to object. But simply making an observation? Really? She wasn't attacking you personally.

I think the OP is, sadly, perfectly correct. Remaining connected 24/7 has become an almost universal addiction. How do I know that a person I saw ignoring their children while on their smartphone for most of a meal only did that once all day? I don't. But when I see the same behavior everywhere I look no matter what time of day, then it doesn't take a statistical genius to figure that something unsettling is happening.

Why should it bother me- because if the observations are correct then it means that something disturbing is happening with interpersonal dynamics. When little plastic gadgets have more immediate importance than personal connectedness. People would rather browse or text than talk to each other. I completely understand where the OP is coming from.

I'm not saying that this is right or wrong. That people must stop using their devices NOW. That would be ridiculous and futile. But it does seem to be a sociological change that a person should be able to discuss and comment on in the abstract without attaching a lot of personal emotion or outrage to.

Good Post Mum . It's so true, social skills are going right out the window. People can't just "be" anymore, whether they are in an elevator, or a line at the grocery store, or at an amusement park they don't know how to just "be" without pulling out their phone and tap tap tapping. It's pathetic.

Great example... a movie theater and someone can't just watch the movie they paid $15 for, they have to sit and text.. and now they aren't just in their own little world they are affecting those around them and lessening others enjoyment... that is when I have a big issue with it.

OR.. on a dark ride... if you are trying to immerse yourself in all that is a Disney vacation, it is really a buzz kill to have the person in front of you record the ride.. or text all through the ride. If they would rather be on their phones after spending thousands on a Disney vacation.. that is their business but, when it starts to affect my enjoyment after I spent thousands that is where the line needs to be drawn.

If a family is just sitting quietly during dinner on their phones, I have to admit that doesn't bother me at all. Ok.. so I sound awful but, if it is not affecting me I am more than likely not even paying attention.

Had one of these next to me in Muppetvision recently, so annoying...you can't avoid seeing the lighted screen in a dark theatre.

Another real problem is how screwed up and dangerous traffic is getting from idiots that are either talking or texting on their phones while driving! This is becoming a real nuisance and a source of road rage. People yapping on the phone as if their sitting at their kitchen table. Honestly, I'll be sitting at a stop light and every person at the intersection will be on a damn phone...who are they all talking to for christ sake??

 

[kellyjeanie]

Uh oh! What's you're daughter doing right now, while you stare at this SCREEN? (Wow, more than 2,700 posts...I hope she can recover from your neglect.)

I'm so glad my whole family hates each other, so we're allowed to use modern technology. (Those are the only two available options, right: either eschew technology almost completely or admit that you're just using it to avoid your family?)

Right?!?

The smug is strong in this thread.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Sorry, but it's 2013 and this is the new reality. If you don't want to partake, that's fine, but don't complain when I do. You don't see me complaining about people NOT utilizing phones. It's just my fiance and I that travel together, and there are often periods when we are waiting for something and just plain don't have anything to talk about because we've been together all day. If we want to take a minute to catch up on work, check in with our family, read the news or sports scores - I will not feel guilty nor apologize to anyone. It doesn't bother either of us, so don't be concerned with us that it bothers you

Okay, I'm stumped. What would some/any reasonable complaints be about people not using mobile phones?