Smartphone Karaoke

Last night my husband took me out for a little impromptu alone time (alone being defined as lack of kids). We had already ate a sloppy-joe supper at home, so he whipped the car into a Mexican place where you can sit outside and watch a little karaoke action six nights a week. We got something to drink, a free basket of chips, and settled in for an hour or two of cheap entertainment. We were not disappointed.

A looooong table of at least twenty-five people were celebrating a birthday or graduation or something. The more they drank, the louder they got. My husband and I, being the kind of wild couple that we are, were calculating how much (in dollars) of tequila they were drinking and how many bills that might pay. We watched as a young girl got up and did a Miley Cyrus impersonation (not my daughter, my husband stated) and when the DJ put on a little Vanilla Ice, the whole place exploded. Suddenly about twenty people of probably three nationalities were up on their feet. Even my husband got a little excited. He looked at me with a twinkle in his eye. My response? You're on your own there, buddy. At any rate, it was a lot of fun, we spent a total of $5.19, and were home to the kiddos by ten.

But this is what caught my eye about the whole evening. I think you'll recognize it if you pay any attention at all to the twenty-first century. In the midst of the Miley Cyrus and Vanilla Ice and Wannabe Cowboys was the ever-present, never-fading smartphone glow. People sitting together, sometimes not even talking, but constantly zipping through screen after screen of whatever it was they were looking at on their phones. Now don't get me wrong, sometimes my husband and I have smartphone envy. Our phones know only how to make calls and send and receive occasional texts. Our budget is tight enough without adding all the bells and whistles, but as I sat there watching, I couldn't help but wonder how much life these people were missing out on.

Are you a smartphone user? Or maybe the proper term I'm going for here is smartphone addict. Can you do everything you can do on those and still interact with the people around you? I'm sincerely curious here. Not just at this restaurant, but practically everywhere you go you see this phenomenon taking place. I see kids standing in groups outside at school with every head looking down at a screen. I've witnessed kids at the playground sitting (still) on a swing or perched at the top (not moving) on a slide with that twisted neck-look. Heck, I've complained before about adults that block the grocery store aisle or hold up a green light because their attention is all focused down instead of around. Even while the whole Vanilla Ice dance was going on, there were some who could not, would not surrender their phone.

And let me tell you, trying to keep a beat while simultaneously facebooking or tweeting or whatever it was they were doing makes for some serious entertainment. I can honestly say that was the best five bucks we've spent in a long time. I may not understand it all, but a good laugh certainly can drown out the worries. I guess until I get my own smartphone to entertain myself, this is as good as it gets.

But that's all right with me.
I really enjoy people too much.
Even if I wouldn't dance to Vanilla Ice.