Last evening I was in a car listening to the radio, and I heard the word ‘Phubber’. I found it quite amusing as it reminded me of the cute character ‘Flubber’ in the Robin Williams movie. Well in reality, Phubber is opposite of cute, it is social rudeness personified.
Phubber is an amalgam of Phone and Snubber; it is the person who lowers the head to view his smart phone, ignoring the people around him.
Imagine having a tête-à-tête with your friend, narrating your not so good day and your friend suddenly smiles looking at the phone. When you stop talking, she says; “Its a funny message that I just read on twitter. Its not you, go on!”
Buddy, you were phubbed!
Some people do phubbing merely out of habit, and some do it as they find the real life un-interesting as compared to the social zen that smart phones offer. And then there are people like me who use phubbing as a mini therapy session.
When I get tired of my children’s never ending rants and whining, I choose my own time out, by phubbing. I am vary of not setting a very good example for my kids, but sometimes I need to tune out, to keep me sane and just a minuscule of phubbing feels therapeutic at that moment.
Once I had eight young men- my cousins and their friends visiting us at our house. I had imagined my house full of hullabaloo and chatter, but I was in for a surprise. After I finished changing my little munchkin’s diaper in my room upstairs, I stepped down from the staircase to greet a room full of utter silence. My first thought was “Where is everybody?” At that moment I was nervous! But then I saw all the dudes with their neck down, socializing with their smart phones, rather than with their stupid counterparts. I did the usual ‘Ahem, Ahem!’ to get their attention, and all the heads turned up to look at me. We chatted for a while, and then I felt their attention again drifting back to their phones.
I was phubbed!
But all is not lost as I hear that there is an anti phubbing campaign. Alas! There is light at the end of the phubbing tunnel. Very soon we might have ‘Anti Phubbing’ zones in the restaurants, in the queue lines and in the coffee shops. Maybe an ‘Anti Phubbing Vehicle’ (APV) lanes on the freeways too! 🙂
Photo credit: mikecogh / Foter / CC BY