OPINION: Mobile phones are killing conversation

OUR society has been over-run by small screens that many people seem to focus on more than each other.

ARE mobile phones killing the art of conversation?

I was asking myself that question at the Gold Coast airport on Monday night.

I was there to pick up my son and while in the waiting area looked around at the people waiting at tables and chairs.

Everyone bar the cleaners had their heads buried in a mobile screens

There were a few couples sitting side by scrolling through their phones, not talking. That saddens me.

I've also been out to dinner at a restuarant and seen couples sitting across from each other both with mobile phones in hand.

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What I am always left wondering is: what could be fascinating than the person sitting next to you?

And if these people are texting, emailing, or talking to another person, is that person more important to you than the one you are physically located with?

How many times have readers been walking on the footpath and bumped into somebody with their head buried in a mobile phone?

I'm a great believer in multi-tasking, but not at great personal danger to myself and other pedestrians.

And don't get me started on drivers who talk or text on their mobiles while they are supposed to be concentrating on the roads. That really irks me.

I've often sat at the roundabout outside the media centre in Goonellbah and seen drivers negeotiate the curve with a phone glued to their ear.

On one memorable occasion a truck driver of a B-double did the same at consierable speed as well.

It's a disturbing social trend.

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