We all know someone like this.
You head out for a drink and a catch-up with a mate, work colleague or family member and, no sooner do you sit down, they have the phone out – typing away or taking pictures.
There are certain pubs and restaurants that now specialise in being phone-free zones, such is the culture that has swept the wider world.
Our over-reliance on phones, and social media, has been duly noted by former Kerry star Darragh Ó Sé. The six-time All-Ireland winner writes excellently, in The Irish Times, about how one of the good things about being retired is that he does not have to deal with the pressures of dealing with Twitter and Facebook.
“Nowadays, everyone is the media,” he laments. “All you need is a Twitter account or a Facebook page and you can say what you like.”
Ó Sé does stress that he does not get the whole obsession with people posting pictures of what they are eating for lunch or dinner. As if to drive home the point, he recalls heading out for a pint with his brother Tomás last year.
Marc, Darragh and Tomas O’Se at the 2007 All Stars.‘We sat down at the table and two pints of Guinness landed down in front of us and straight away he was out with the phone. He took a picture of it and ping, sent it by Snapchat. We started chatting and ping, a reply.
‘Ping, another reply. Tomás starts typing, ping. Ping, ping, ping.
‘He was bashing away at this phone the whole time until I had to tell him to put it away. Like, are we out for a pint or are we out for a pint? And, by the way, I’m not supposed to be out for a pint, so if you want to tell the world what you’re up to, don’t be hanging me into the bargain.’
You could only talk to a brother, or close friend, like that.
The Kingdom legend concedes that he might come across as Grandpa Simpson with his complaints but, in fairness, he does have a point.
Or does saying that show us up too?!
