How much has the cell phone and the attendant rise of social media/total connectivity changed our lives? Here's one small example, from the world of dining:
[2004] Customers on average spend 8 minutes before closing the menu to show they are ready to order. ...
Customers are done, check delivered, and within 5 minutes they leave.
Average time from start to finish: 1:05.
...
[2014] Before even opening the menu they take their phones out, some are taking photos while others are simply doing something else on their phone (sorry we have no clue what they are doing and do not monitor customer WIFI activity).
7 out of the 45 customers had waiters come over right away, they showed them something on their phone and spent an average of 5 minutes of the waiter's time. Given this is recent footage, we asked the waiters about this and they explained those customers had a problem connecting to the WIFI and demanded the waiters try to help them. ...
Total average time from when the customer was seated until they placed their order 21 minutes. ...
8 out of 45 customers bumped into other customers or in one case a waiter (texting while walking) as they were either walking in or out of the Restaurant.
Average time from start to finish: 1:55
You should read the whole thing; it's really quite fascinating. Longer per-table times mean less turnover at the restaurant, which means that the restaurant (and its servers) make less money. But it also means that you, the customer, are inconvenienced—and are inconveniencing others—on a nightly basis. Longer wait times, worse service, food that gets cold as you spend "an average of three minutes" taking photos of it.
Look, it's one thing to plomp down in a bar and bogart it all night. We've all done that. As long as you're still drinking, even if you're doing so kind of slowly, no big deal. That's the norm of the bar. It's another entirely, however, to just chill at a restaurant table for 20 to 30 minutes after you've finished eating, sending out tweets, checking your email, desperately refreshing Instagram to see if anyone liked the photo of your endive salad.
That's just rude.
Alas, we live in rude, self-centered times. And things are only going to get worse before they get better.