It seemed like a Norman Rockwell scene: Six young friends, four girls and two guys, gathered around a table at the local Steak ‘n Shake, enjoying some milkshakes and time together.
Until something spoiled that moment—the same “something” that seems to spoil many of our moments today. Our obsession with technology has snatched our attention away from anything resembling real relationships.
“Each kid had a cellphone,” says Dr. Steve Greene, who sat at a nearby table, on a popular episode of Greenelines on the Charisma Podcast network. “And so you can probably guess where the rest of the story is going; it’s going to the thumbs. The thumbs were all over those phones.”
Greene says he watched the table closely, and none of the young people ever put down their smartphone. “Yet they laughed at each other. They were cutting up; having a great time.”
What he noticed, Greene says, was “more attention being placed on the apparatus, the technology, than on what kids used to do when they would go to Steak ‘n Shake—they would relate to each other. They would talk more to each other. They would look at each other.”
To hear the rest of the story—and the lesson for leaders Greene pulls from it—listen to the entire episode of Greenelines at this link, and be sure to subscribe to Greenelines on your favorite podcast platform for more inspiring stories like this one. {eoa}
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