The world has changed a lot since I was a kid. Last evening three of my children and I stopped at a restaurant for a quick dinner. The place was an order-at-the-counter type, where you stand around waiting for your food for a few minutes before taking a seat at a table. During those brief moments I noticed a bizarre ritual performed by each and every successive patron who entered. It went like this:
1. enter restaurant and take a quick look at the queue
2. take place at back of line and dig smart phone out of pocket
3. assume the "smart phone slouch" (a position wherein the smart phone user curls spine forward and downward so he or she can peer at the little screen)
4. occasionally glance up at line and move into the empty space that was opened up because no one was paying attention
5. repeat
Man! How things have changed! When I was a kid, all those people would have been smoking!