[paul cotter (OP)]

I am fed up with my family and their smartphones on a night out. They remain glued to their screens and then bombard me with images that I have zero interest in(most of my family seem to suffer from a malady I call photophilia, collecting countless useless images). Personally I think it is bad manners to be using one's smartphone during what should be a social event and not a source of stress. What do ye think? Am I just too old and grumpy?

[Petrochemicals]

The photos and videos I do find not worthwhile, I do take photos, I have thousands built up over the years and I barely ever look at them, I have no real interest in looking at something I have already lived, other people will probably not be at all interested in 95%+ of them either, I do not have photos of dogs wearing hats or similar.


When camcorders first came out people would spend hours of their holiday filming videos so when they got back home they could see what they had missed and subject others to hours and hours of amateur VHS quality poorly shot shaky directionless videos.

[alancalverd]

As a loathsome narcissist, I'm very much in favor of technology. In the days before Facebook, you had to photograph your lunch at least 20 times (36 if you'd bought the full cassette), take the film to the pharmacy, and order enough postcard prints to send to all your friends. Either that, or agree to all sit in a darkened room for a couple of hours waiting for the projector lamp to fail.

Those who believe that CO2 from aircraft causes climate change, should embrace Photoshop. Instead of standing in sweaty queues to sit in  a cramped aircraft, you can just paste a professional portrait of yourself onto an equally professional photograph of Big Ben, Mt Everest, the  Eiffel Tower, Niagara Falls, etc, reduce your carbon footprint, bore your last actual friend. and not have to bother learning another language or wondering where your  luggage has gone.

The response to folk who want to play with phones in company, is to turn away and look at your own phone when they finally deign to speak to you   and not invite them again.

[alancalverd]

Further thought. I have attended a few committee dinners in pub restaurants. Time was that these were places for quiet conversation in an acoustically "soft" environment, separated from any live gigs in the "spit and sawdust" bar.

Nowadays the acoustic environment is  "hard" (no sticky carpets, big glass windows....) and filled throughout with umpteen decibels of piped noise, over which you have to shout to be heard by your nearest neighbor.

So it is quite likely that those under the age of 40 have never experienced conversation over a meal, and don't know how to behave at a family dinner.

[evan_au]

Australia has recently taken the radical step of banning under-16s from holding a social media account.
- So this might slightly reduce the number of people on cellphones at the dinner table

Of course, there are still a few steps to be resolved:
- The legislation doesn't come into force for another year
- It doesn't spell out exactly which social media platforms will be included and excluded (it may be left to the discretion of some government official?)
- It is unclear how the age of a person will be determined (although there is a field trial of several candidate methods that is supposed to report in mid-2025)
- I am sure the whole process will be appealed by various interested parties...

[paul cotter (OP)]

I would reckon that ban will be hard to implement.

[alancalverd]

Channel 4, 8 pm 11 December, will be broadcasting an experiment in which a school "confiscated" all the pupils' smartphones. Should make very interesting viewing.