I never knew that when my own turn is around the corner, it'll be unleashed more than tenfold of what I did. Sometimes, we all react to others and do things that seem right in our eyes without descending on how the other person who is involved is reacting.
I had this friend of mine I love staying with. Whenever we are together, we have countless topics to deal with. We engaged in discussion about our perspective lives, schools, lives, and aspirations for the future, etc.
On an unusual day, in the evening, my friend and I were discussing a certain topic. And it was after church, we talked from church until we halted at his apartment; we were still chatting. In the midst of our discussion, I subtly asked for his smartphone and he handed it to me. He unlocked it, and I began scrolling and doing things to his phone. He was still conversing with me, and I was busy being engrossed with his phone, not sparing him a glance, but giving him my 60% attention.
Within a second, he swiftly took the phone from my touch, tapped the power button, and drove it into his trouser pocket. Filled with confusion, I couldn't utter an ounce of words, because I was in total awe of all the scenarios running through my mind.
He glanced at me, though the spot was swarthy, I could still discern those eyes of his, but couldn't say about his countenance.
"Isaac, we are talking here. Why pressed the phone? When you get back home, then you can sleep on it. Why are we letting technology gradually slow how we relate to others?" He said in a lower but polite voice. I stood there speechless and unaided. Clutching my fingers together, I just keep staring at the road. Fidgeting my eyes, I still didn't spare him a glare.
I let out a sigh of solace and acknowledged my blunder. But I was too blind to discern the little moral lessons from there.
Months later, as I was passing by, I then spotted another friend of mine and decided to go sit and talk with him. Still with not my smartphone then.
He was immersed in his phone and didn't notice when I stood in front of him. I tapped on his shoulder and he sluggishly raised his head. Catching sight of my presence, he pushed out his hand for a normal handshake and I abode with full pleasure. I sat down with him on the incomplete fence where he was sitting. Feeling comfortable, I opted for a conversation, but instead, I was being ghosted.
After the handshake, he didn't spare me a stare, nor did he have this rethink that there was someone there with him. All that was with him was his phone. He was deeply immersed in the phone for more than half an hour before the realization dawned on him that, hey, someone is here. To worsen the case, he inserted his Airpod into his ears.
I was devastated and left alone. The urge to reach out to my phone flashed through my mind. The feeling of being alone, despite being in someone's company, engulfed me. All I could presume to be doing was just looking at the dull, less busy road that takes forever for the sound of an engine to be heard. The sight of human beings passing. My fingers were my companion as I played with it.
Sitting there with him for more than 2hrs, we haven't talked for up to 20 mins. Time up, we departed.
Still, I haven't figured out anything. Until now. Those scenarios are flashing through my mind, underlying out moral lessons from each case respectively.
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