Parler par portable
(or very roughly translated “talk don’t text”)
Having recently had the immense pleasure of spending three months in country France, I had plenty of time to people watch.
A striking observation is the absence of mobile phones in cafés, bars and bistros. I spent many a sunny day happily observing a group of three young men enjoying coffee and beers, chatting away with not one sign of a mobile. Likewise, I watched a large family gathered together for a drink before lunch (age range from 4 years old to possibly 80), where every member engaged with each other and not a mobile to be seen. No one was texting or making or taking phone calls.
The French like to chat, and raucous bursts of laughter was a common and pleasing sound emanating from within the bars in our local village. No one is seen obsessively checking for SMSs, or surfing the net or even worse, talking to someone on their phone while in the company of others. People are engaged and genuinely seem to enjoy conversing with others, being relaxed in the present.
A further spring challenge, other than consuming all those fruits and veggies, is to be in the present. Forget all that digital techno . . . try using your smart phone as a phone only, and never use it in the company of others.
Liberating indeed.