Do you want a GB with your steak, with a side of internet?

The other night I went out for dinner with a couple of people at a rather nice sit down pub to have a steak dinner.  I had been sitting there for a good ten to fifteen  minutes and chatting about things in general, work, life, the universe and everything when a family arrived at a table slightly to my left and to my front.  I decided that it looked like mum and dad, with a friend, mum and dads daughter, maybe 4 or 5 and son possibly 9 or 10.  I think they had sat down for less time than it takes to say "make mine a dry martini, shaken, not stirred and with an olive!" - when out came the electronic do-hickeys!. The iPhone, the iPod and some sort of electronic game.   

Dad and friend had oh so very smartly disappeared to the bar or to order meals.  Mum, daughter and son proceeded to sit at the table and attend to their respective electronic do-hickeys.  Daughter was given her game, son already had his in his hand, holding it up in front of his face and playing a game while being wired for sound and mum was typing away on her iPhone – possibly telling her friends on Facebook that she was splurging on a night out with the family and what a wonderful time she was having.  That is merely a guess of course.  

What struck me the most was the fact that none of them looked up at each other or said a word….call me old fashioned, I thought going out to dinner was a bit of treat or novelty and it is all about socialising and having some dinner chit chat and solving the problems of the world. 

What clinched it for me was when dad and friend came back to the table and promptly opened up iPads – I kid you not!   Dad and friend did sort of talk to each other at the same time – possibly to discuss some new app – they even showed eachother their respective screens – and I couldn’t help sort of staring.  I say sort of because I was doing my best to be covert – but I think the fact my beer kept dribbling out of my open mouth and dropped jaw might have been a bit of a give away! 

The most activity I noticed was when food arrived – it got hectic, what with logging off, shutting down, saving games followed by the piling of said gadgets onto the table as if it was some sort of homage to Apple.com.

I think I may have lost interest after that because I was still in a state of shock which only a good, stiff Scotch with two cubes, not three – but two - could wrench me from.  

I guess I didn't get it – there were real people at a table not a foot away from each other with real experiences (presumably), opinions and observations - but instead there was communication happening across cyberspace (in 100 characters or less), some sort of electronic warfare being undertaken in an electronic world or electronic sport being undertaken and a sharing of some sort of fabulous new app that one must have.  At the rate we are going restaurants will be full of little individual tables so we don’t have to suffer the inconvenience of being physically near someone while we chat and communicate on our i-things.