Can You Hear Me Now ... Are You Sure That's "Good"?

Since the inception of the telephone, communication between us all has never been the same. How ironic that the more portable these gadgets become, the more we become attached to them. In fact, all of these digital devices have caused a good majority of us to lose some of the most basic etiquette skills toward each other. Just last night I sat in a restaurant having a nice meal, when in walked three (late teens/early twenties) young ladies. They were seated right behind me and two of the three were talking on their cell phones, obviously to two different people, for a considerable amount of time. How about the third one? She took the time to go out to eat with her friends and she can only just sit there patiently waiting for her companions to finish, by the sound of it, not so noteworthy conversations. And in the middle of all this, my coincidental dining neighbors must have been seated in a non-celling section because there was an apparent loss of signal ... very apparent. I guess that when any type of communication device is not performing correctly, the proper user response is to yell into it. This must somehow make the appliance aware that the operator is not happy with it's performance, and compel the unit to try harder. Anyway, my point is this. If people take the time to see you, return the favor by spending some time with them.