Checking your cell phone in the company of others is considered a terrible thing to do—unless you’re the one doing it.
Checking one’s hand-held device in the company of another is a field that is rife with self-serving justifications: The general consensus is it’s a terrible thing to do—unless you’re the one doing it. Shutterstock
It’s Saturday night, date night at my house. Being the thoughtful, sensitive guy I am, I leave my phone at home. I want to give my wife my full-tilt undivided attention during this, our special time together.
We get in the car—she drives because she likes to, and I save my male ego for important matters, like remembering the batting averages of the St. Louis Cardinals’ “Million-Dollar Infield” of 1964.
Con Chapman
Author
Con Chapman is a Boston writer whose work has appeared in The Atlantic, The Christian Science Monitor, and The Boston Globe, among other publications. His biography of Johnny Hodges, Duke Ellington’s alto saxophonist, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press.
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