An Interesting Phenomena

Friday mornings, with laptop in tow, I like to head out of the house and spend time catching up on my reading, and sometimes, my blogging. My “normal” place to go is Starbucks even though their hot chocolate is not the best (their white chocolate is not too bad though).

Pulling into the parking lot, I noticed lots of parked cars. Hmmm, I thought to myself, am I going to find a place to sit down inside? Grabbing my laptop carrier, I headed into the store and promptly walked out. Every table and chair was taken.

My options are unlimited at this point. I could head 1/2 a mile to Caribou Coffee, a mile and a half to Dunn Brothers or a mile to Panera’s.

My choice today was Panera mainly because I knew they would have a lot of seating and my chances of finding a quiet corner were higher.

The few times that I’ve been to this Panera I’ve had maybe a couple of people ahead of me in line — but not so today. There was a long line. I wonder why all these people are out today? Could it be that the holiday season brings out groups of people to meet in coffee houses?

After picking up my order of a hot chocolate and egg and cheese sandwich, I sat down, took out my laptop and looked up.

What an interesting phenomena, I thought. What am I talking about you ask?

Looking up I saw groups of people talking and laughing and nary a laptop computer around. I am the oddball here. When I walked into Starbucks everyone I saw had a laptop in front of them. Hmmm … I wonder why there’s such a difference. Then I noticed “it.”

The people I had seen at Starbucks were all young(er) whereas the people I’m looking at right now are all older then I am. A totally different crowd.

Could I infer from this that older people have not forgotten that face-to-face contact is necessary for survival? The older, the wiser? Human contact is not lost?

No, I guess I can’t infer that although it seems like a logical thought pattern to follow. I know plenty of young people who socialize face-to-face with other people.

The older people around me are definitely engaged with each other. No looking at smart phones or computers — nothing is distracting them except the faces of those around them. They are smiling, nodding, listening and enjoying the conversation they are having.

I like it. There is an “aliveness” to it. Perhaps, instead of a cyber Monday or black Friday, just perhaps we should have a “no technology week.” Now THAT would be very interesting.