Putting Off Resolutions

I'll come up with them, I'll come up with them, but until then I have a rant. I really, really do not understand the constant texting and the obsession people have with iPhones and Blackberries. People seem to be aligning themselves along whether they have iPhones and text each other every five minutes and whether they don't.

I don't want to get into a lot of the bigger implicates of which is better, which actually keeps people "in contact" and whether it's actually better or worse to be in constant contact. I genuinely want to understand why so many people do this and if they understand how boring they are. I can literally no longer eat a meal with my brother because he texts people the whole time, takes pictures of what is going on around us and then tweets the pictures- all as we are eating together. Back in the day they called that rudeness and self-absorption. Today apparently it's called, well, I actually don't know. What is this called?

I went to Disney last year and I was truly puzzled by many of the people there. Here's how it works: you stand in line for 15 minutes to an hour in the heat and blinding sunlight, growing weary from standing on concrete and sweltering in the heat and humidity. When it is finally your turn, you get to sit down in the dark, enjoy cool air and experience a ride. Instead, many of the people treated the experience as an interruption of their texting time. They struggled to see their phones in the dark. They typed non-stop while on a ride, at Disney, during their vacations. Many of them watched the rides through their cameras as they filmed the entire experience.

I am very sad to see how boring many people who used to be lively, interesting and engaging have gotten. I can understand sending a text or making a cell phone call if you are looking for someone that you needed to meet somewhere and can't find them. I can understand it if you realize that you forgot to remind someone about something and need to send them a quick message. I can not understand texting people for hours a day about anything at all. I can't understand interrupting a meal, a movie or a work day to send junk messages to a bunch of people that you may not even know. If there is a real, logical reason other than "everyone is doing it- it's new" then I'd love to hear about it. Maybe it would soften the blow of seeing so many interesting people dry up and turn quiet, lifeless and just plain dull.