Tuesday, July 30, 2024

Twenty People Under Thirty Were Seated In A Coffeehouse ...

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The twenty people
were seated at four 
elongated tables
with no space available
for anyone else
 
YET
not a word was shared
between any two of them
 
EACH PERSON
fixated on the palm
of his or her hand
which held their "iPhone"

THEN
an announcement 
permeated the room:
Please place your device 
on the table

Everyone did
exactly as told
and were given 
further instructions
 
There was something
 in the previous century
called 
"Eye-to-Eye Contact"
Please look into the eyes
of the person
directly opposite you
and have spoken conversation
about anything you choose
to discuss

The eye-to-eye contact
was made as requested
but not one 
of the twenty people
could make any 
spoken conversation
across the table

THEN
almost half the people present
started screaming
incoherently

Most of them
collapsed to the floor
but then the announcement 
proceeded
 
Thank you for your time
 
You may now 
pick up your devices from the table
and continue doing
whatever you did
before this experiment
 
People un-collapsed from the floor
and all whom were gathered
picked up their "iPhones"
and everyone returned
to a state of 
normalcy
***
 
© PAUL OLIVERIO ©
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4 comments:

  1. Blind people understand eye-2-eye contact better than the under-30 generation does.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oliverio says… The blind have a sensory understanding of eye2eye contact…as opposed to an entire generation that has ZERO understanding of the concept

    ReplyDelete
  3. I dunno. Some people don’t like eye to eye contact with strangers Probably why l’m banned from the library

    ReplyDelete
  4. NO CELL PHONES - por favor!

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/garystern/2019/04/17/the-new-york-city-restaurant-that-prohibits-cell-phone-use-facing-backlash-or-cheers/

    ReplyDelete