A touch of Millennial Fever
Recently, after a particularly busy day at my hospital where it seemed as though nearly every patient had a rather dreadful diagnosis, I had a baffling interaction with a client towards the end of the afternoon. A lovely young 20-something was in the exam room to pick up her sweet 13-year-old golden retriever who’d been in my hospital for the day. The diagnosis was not good; in fact, it was quite serious. However, between her cell phone ringing and tablet chiming during the consultation, I was unable to maintain any face-to-face contact with the young lady as I tried to break the news to her that her pet had a serious type of cancer.
In between my comments, she did manage to glance up once or twice in between her tweets, texts and face times. “Can you fix it?” she asked, but didn’t really look at me for my answer. As I tried to continue with treatment options, she interrupted “how much time does he have?” All this was really to no avail, because her devices continued to chime, buzz, ding and vibrate.
I felt terrible. Terrible for her, terrible for the sweet, grey faced golden retriever who was sitting and smiling as this preoccupied millennial continued clicking away at her cell phone as if the answer would spring forth from an iPhone 6. I also felt frustrated, like her dog and I were trapped under an 18-wheeler and nobody, not even the “jaws of death” could help us escape.
Of course, two hours later, after I was closed, the barrage of after-hours calls began asking me to repeat everything I had previously stated. Apparently this young woman was now in a frame of mind to hear what I had to say and apparently take it in for the first time. I shrugged it off as a paradigm shift where the younger generation process information in a different, less intimate way. Us old guys from yesteryear, who just fell off the turnip truck, still cling to the days when people used eye contact and maybe the grasp of a hand to convey kindness and concern.
I’ve been contemplating this high-tech trend recently and feel rather split regarding the lack of engagement between people nowadays. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate technology. I am very grateful to be able to snap a quick photo of a lesion on a pet with my smart phone and share it with a specialist in New York in a matter of seconds. The improvements that technology has given us are remarkable and improving medicine almost on an hourly basis. But when I think about how intrusive high tech “gadgets” seem and how they appear to isolate and prevent close communication, I think it is a big step back.
Certainly with my business relationships, clients who are so glued to their smart phones that they won’t bother looking up when I’m trying to speak to them about their pets don’t win any points in my book, nor do I feel a lasting sense of satisfaction or true contentment at being at the core of their relationship with their pet.
One thought on “A touch of Millennial Fever”
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Hi Dr. Forsythe,
I was simply appalled at the behavior of the woman you described in your March 18th column. How someone could consider the latest tweet or text more important than the welfare of an animal companion is beyond me. I’m also baffled when I see someone staring into the device in his/her hand while pushing a stroller along the sidewalk. If you don’t intend to pay attention to your child, why have a child in the first place?
I worry, too, that this obsession with electronic devices will affect the well-being of our planet years from now. Will those who spend all their time staring down at their smartphones care about saving the trees or saving the birds? I doubt it. They don’t look up often enough to realize such beings exist!
Our culture seems to have a desperate fear of being present in the moment. That fear leads to rudeness, disconnection, and the suffering of our fellow creatures. I feel sorry for the dog you described in your column and for every child growing up with a parent who thinks whatever’s on the screen is more important than the little soul entrusted to him or her.
Thanks for bringing up this important issue.