Phubbing

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CD-1 track 25. Hi Luke, what are you reading? Hi, Agar. I’m reading a fascinating article about the Stop Fubbing campaign. The idea started in Australia but has spread to the USA and Britain now.

I think this campaign is a brilliant idea because for me this type of behaviour is totally antisocial. Have you heard about it? Not really, what’s it all about? It’s about people who fiddle with their mobile phones while talking to you. Either checking or replying to their text messages, browsing the net or playing games.

The name Fubber comes from two words, snub, which means ignore and phone. Oh I see, this is no news to me. I just didn’t know this type of behaviour had its own name. I don’t think we ought to come up with campaigns like that. Is it really such a big issue?

I guess it’s the same as sending people text messages with birthday wishes or breaking up relationships in an email or a tweet. A lot of young people see no harm in it but I find it simply rude. And I’m glad I’m not the only one. This campaign was launched by a 23 year old student so not someone who comes from the previous generation. Well we all do it but I haven’t lost a single friend because of this.

Well that’s what I hear from some people. Still in my view it just shows that we have no clue how to interact socially and look each other in the face when we socialise. What’s the point of making an effort to meet in person if all your time is spent fiddling with your phone? You might as well stay at home and play with technology if you’re so in love with it. A lot of people spend their free time playing with technology so maybe it’s true that we just don’t know how to communicate verbally anymore.

When I look at my family we’re all at it. I must admit I read that experts warn about the social and emotional consequences of this kind of behaviour but I never gave it much thought myself. I think I should now. Hence the campaign. People have to be made aware that fubbing kills relationships.

I wouldn’t go so far in my criticism but I agree that people should stop to reflect on it because I believe that many of them don’t even realise they’re doing it. So I guess I see your point now. I think I’ll support the campaign from now on. Some psychologists go even further by saying that we’re on our smartphones all the time because we consider our closest friends and family members no longer entertaining enough so we subconsciously ignore them. However I wouldn’t go along with that not yet anyway.

Oh I don’t think it’s so bad. Maybe not. Are you using your phone now? Just to update my status on Facebook it’ll only take a second. Can’t you see that you’re doing exactly what we’ve been talking about?

Oops I’m sorry. Like many others you’ve just proved that we value the quality of apps and online stuff more than real life conversations we could have instead. Although many of my friends would disagree here I believe I’m in the right. But we had a conversation didn’t we? We did but you’ve just put an end to it.