Fiction: Of table manners and being Anti Social

I developed a sudden like towards writing in a mix of fiction and non fiction. Who would've known that it's so amusing to create fictional characters out of the blue. =)

"Why are you being so anti-social?" Mum said, giving me a warning look and in a stern voice.

I reluctantly and sluggishly tore my eyes away from my iphone screen and looked around the table.

It is the new years eve of Chinese New Year, the day where me and my close family members gather together to have our reunion dinner. Like most city folk, who lives in a fast pace environment and never seem to have time and diligence to cook a full course Chinese feast, I had my reunion dinner in a bustling restaurant.

Sitting directly in front of me is my 16 year old cousin. He was frantically tapping away on his new ipad 2 and had this awfully intense look on his face. For someone who is very much caught up in the "Angry Birds fever", I would assume that he's not about to lose his concentration anytime soon. For a moment there, I thought he was about to start punching his ipad screen.

Next to him sat my 40-plus, but still going young, aunty. With her chic red new hair-do, she would've easily passed off as someone who just turned 30. At that point of time, her face was frowning as she was having difficulties navigating through the applications that she downloaded recently on her new andriod. She gave up after numerous tries before turning to my cousin. "Eh, how to log in to facebook ah?", she asked. My aunt seemed to relaxed a little after that.

Two seats away from me sat my grandfather. At that moment, I caught him squinting intently at his mobile phone, obviously trying to make out the very small alphabets on his phone screen. Eye sight does deteriorate with age despite the technology advances in mobile phones. I wouldn't be surprise to see him take out his magnifying glass and eventually aiming it at his phone soon.

One would've never thought that technology advances would take its toll even on a dinner table and on an important occasion like the reunion dinner. But one also would've never thought that a simple device like a phone was able to bridge the gap between the old and the young.

It was a fairly amusing sight to see all 3 of my family members, seated not far apart from each other, so different in age but so quietly engrossed in their gadgets and yet still managed to temporarily step out from virtual reality and consequently blending back to normal table conversations at ease. 

I admit that being part of Generation Y, I'm sucked into the realm of technology advances and peer pressure. I am one of those who need to stay connected at all times and suffice to say, a normal phone would not do me good anymore. That said, Generation X and even the baby boomers are following suit, slowly realizing the benefits of technology, although still in the mode of discovery.

While having lunch with my colleagues the other day, I noticed that at one point in time, all 8 of us present at the table were all busily tapping away on our smart phones, to only become conscious of as the chit-chatter abruptly came to a halt thereafter. I am not trying to be anti-social nor was I trying to break a notion of awkward silence, rather I was unconsciously utilizing my "paramount tool of distraction" by taking a break of silence.

I don't see anything wrong with being partially engaged in one's own gadget as long as it doesn't look like there is total withdrawal from table manners altogether. In a casual environment, there is no strict obligation to only eat whilst on the dinner table rather, it relies on preference and company.