Welcome to the future! Really?

Maybe I am just being nostalgic today but I am being dragged into the 'electronic age' so I need to face a new reality!  Isn't it wonderful what the new smart phones can do? Isn't it a just little creepy? When I was a pre-teen the greatest feature of our phone was the party line!!  Yep, shared phone lines, not with your family but with your neighbors, and I loved it!! When I could find time with no one around, which wasn't easy with a stay at home Mom, two brothers and a sister, I perfected the art of EAVESDROPPING!!  It was awesome!  I heard some of the most interesting conversations and never got caught, in a manner of speaking!  I was privy to several conversations with our neighbor and her "boyfriend", something her husband and children had a problem with!  My Mamma was so mad at me when I told her, or at least she pretended to be, but I am sure she couldn't wait to get with all the women in our neighborhood and share the latest gossip! I have a cell phone that is so far back in time I am not sure my grandchildren know what it is!  Chip and Garrison have the EVO and one night from Chili's Chip programmed his DVR to tape a program for him!  Say what? It will show cloud cover in your specific area, store your every thought and have dinner waiting on the table when you get home from work! I want one but what would I do with it? Seriously I don't want to be the only person so technically retarded I am too stupid to benefit from a smart phone!!  Imagine holding in your hand something that could literally change your every day life; take you places by giving you directions, let you look up recipes at the grocery store so you can shop intelligently, let you watch movies, television shows and videos of your grandchildren, anywhere, anytime!  In case you didn't notice it should be extremely clear to see how un-techno savvy I am just by the fact this is all I know about smart phones!  I still want one but I am afraid I would just continue to use it like a regular cell phone!! But to be honest, it's more than just phones!  It's everything, even BOOKS!  Now people are snuggling up with electronic readers!!  How cozy is that?  If I ever, and I don't think I would, I would never have one because I think it takes all the love of reading!  I love the books I read, when I am done reading one I will actually be sad to leave the lives of the characters and their adventures!  Books should evoke a feeling of contentment, an excitement to turn each page to see what's next, a sentimental attitude toward the storyline and the characters involved; can you get that with a reader?  Someone told me once that  the only books in the library in heaven are the books you gave away!!  I am going to have to think about that one!! A situation happened just the other night and for the absolute life of me I have not figured it out yet. Chuck and I went to dinner at Bonefish last week and shortly after we got there a family came in, Mom, Dad and little boy around 6 or 8.  They sat down and immediately after scanning the menu, the parents, each of them, brought out an electronic reader, complete with reading light, and commenced to READ and I mean seriously read!  The little boy went back and forth under the table sitting by the Mom, crossing over sitting by the Dad and all the while they continued to read.  When the waiter came over, they slanted their readers down to respond to him as if he was taking them from some secret-agent spy stuff that was going to help them save the world!!  All the while the little boy is crossing over, playing with the toy and neither of his parents said a word to him!  They just continued to read!  What's your take on this? Maybe they were in a reading competition, maybe they were reading legal documents so they could respond to something legally time sensitive or maybe they were just rude and self-centered!! When I was growing up we ate dinner at the table together, when my children were growing up we ate dinner at the table together, even when Chuck was out of town, the kids and I had dinner at the table together!  Going out to eat at a restaurant was a treat, a special time to relax and be together.  Those parents, while getting more learned (maybe), were missing out on the most valuable education ever; the opportunity to learn about their child! The chance to listen to him about his life and his day and what was happening in his little world!  There was no sharing going on at that family dinner except to share with their little boy that he was just a necessary evil while the readers were front and center. It's the same everywhere! You can't have dinner out without someone's cell phone ringing incessantly, you can't get anyone'stexting or checking their facebook! The future?  It's a Norman Rockwell type painting of a family spending quality time at the dinner table, only it's not people, it's electronic gadgets!!!  Do I really want the EVO?