Going for a coffee - what has happened to the art of conversation?
Watch this postHas anyone else noticed that nowadays when ever you go some where for a tea or coffee no one seems to be talking any more, it's heads down and looking at the screen in their hand. Being on my own I like gong into cafes and used to smile at people and sometimes start a conversation about the weather or what was good to order, but now not many people seem interested in this sort of thing, they seem to be more intent on the little screen. My phone is usually in my bag, where it stays, until it rings, am I the odd one out for wanting to engage in a chat??
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I agree with you. Communication in person is slipping away. People now days aren't interested in talking face to face. So sad. How can you laugh together if you are looking at a screen. Sometimes people on the bus sit together and text each other!
However, my village does have a village cafe held one morning a week in the village hall. and I'm am more than happy to chat with other villages here. The whole purpose of the cafe (run by the church) is to encourage villages, young and old, to meet and socialise. Toys are provided for toddlers, to allows mothers to chat without worries and newspaper and magazines for the older folk if they want to be alone. No phones in evidence by choice and very popular.
Any info on how the group was formed would be great.
However I can't remember a lot of chit chat going on prior to the tech age.
If you want a conversation smile and speak if no one answers their not worth talking to anyway.People watching is interesting guess who will look up from their phones first . Last time I was in a cafe' a man offered to sing me an Elvis song in exchange for my toastie .I said "no it has to be a Beatles number " I kept my toastie ,he left with his wife and I laughing and my granddaughter sitting looking thoughly perplexed .
Don't give up being you. Its not you at all, its how people have become. They like to communicate by screen, as for the art of a good old chin wag its often down to where we live. If you are in London I would forget it, so many people don't speak English, and it can be dangerous. If out in more friendly areas of the country people will still say good morning and give a moment to exchange words.... I was a London born boy, back then it was so different everyone in a road talked to each other and looked out for each other.... I am now in Sussex and yes most people have a phone out in the situation you are talking about... yet I wont give in and hang onto the hope that people will start to talk again.. So should you. :>)
To be honest I am quite happy to sit and people-watch rather than try to engage in conversation.
Even if you're enjoying a coffee alone at least you can have fun watching all those phone addicts wondering what that silence is.
Come the revolution. . . . .