I put down the cellphone and glanced to see my husband seething across the table.

“I can’t believe you answered that during dinner!”

“I thought it was important,” I pleaded for forgiveness.  It hadn’t been important, a social call from my sister.  “Sorry.”  We were dining out; I don’t know what overcame me.  I’m usually more conscientious than that about manners.  We never do this at home.

As I thought about it, though, my remorse quickly turned to anger.  “Do you know how many times I sit through a meal while you are on your cell phone?”

“I never talk on it, though.”

“How is that different?  You are always scrolling through, answering emails, and you have answered it before.  I always feel ignored.”

“Let’s make a pact:  no cell phones when we are in a restaurant.”

It didn’t last.  We still pull up a chair, pull out our phones and set them on the table.  He uses his phone for business, an excuse that is hard to challenge.  I text with family and friends, follow Twitter.  We google topics of interest.

I think this is just the way of marriage.  I remember long before cell phones, observing couples in restaurants, easily recognizing the ones who had been married a long time:  they didn’t talk.  Aren’t cellphones an extension of that distance?

Bone & Silver , one of the blogs I follow, recently wrote a post about time management, in which she mentioned a photographer who captures pictures of people on their cellphones, only he removes the devices.  It is a startling portrait of modern-day relationships.  He calls his perspective Removed  and his name is Eric Pickersgill.

Pickersgill calls the current technology phenomena:  behavioural lag.  In the following video he explains his mission.  Through the eyes of the photographer, our reality is revealed.  The eyes say it all.

(Featured image: snipview.com)