Disconnected

It is Saturday night in Downtown LA. A feathery 50-some year old Japanese waitress speaks softly, heavy-accented, explaining the origin and type of sushi she has just placed ever so gently in front of us. We nod and smile politely, used to this routine by now. This is our 8th dish and we have no idea what she is saying, but we know the sushi is out of this world, each piece surpassing the previous with its flavor, intensity and melt-in-your-mouth buttery texture. 

Across from me I watch a young couple, seemingly in a comfortable relationship, possibly dating for a few months now. Both sit with iPhones in hand, texting away, laughing at pictures, checking out Google+ and Facebook and Twitter and Pinterest and just completely connected but disconnected. Beside them sit a 40-something married couple, also completely in tune with their own iPhones and barely talking a minute through the two hour dinner. The double dinner date behind me chat away about their dogs, sharing pictures the entire time via iPhones. At least they were sharing, I suppose, even if it was their phones.

We ate at Sushi Zo. Five star-rated, pricey but worth every penny Downtown LA sushi newcomer that is wowing all the critics. Our dinner was incredible. The ambience was clean and fresh, waitstaff attentive and aware. The only disappointment was the behavior of every single patron that sat through their meal (except my husband, of course, who does own an Android smartphone but hardly knows how to text, isn't connected on Facebook, Twitter or any other social media site except LinkedIn for professional networking reasons). Every person spent the delicious evening twiddling fingers away on their phones, breaking only to quickly drop a piece of sushi in their mouths.

Maybe this is you. I do not mean to offend you. Perhaps this is us. Whatever it is, I just do not understand it. I was the youngest person in that restaurant. It is not merely an age thing. The experience has left me with an urge to disconnect a little more. I rarely answer my phone as it is, but I am guilty of checking out Facebook a few times per day, never spending more than 5 total accumulated minutes per day on the site, but still wasting time that I do not have to waste. 

More than wasting time, there is no way to be connected to those real people in our lives, those actual conversations and events that are taking place around us, when we are thumbing on our phones all day. Those couples, newly dating and married for years, who sat around the restaurant connected the entire night yet so disconnected to real life, pained me. I felt sorrow for them on all they were missing out on. And so I vow to disconnect a little bit more and connect a lot more with those in my physical preference. Sometimes we just need to put the phone down. If that's too hard, lock it up, toss it in a drawer. I promise it will be there when you return. As for the people you are ignoring every second you spend time with your eyes locked to your device, they may not be there waiting quite as patiently, if at all.