Mobile mania is an all-consuming affair

Mobile phones were once again a highly popular choice as presents for Christmas.

To have, and to hold, the latest Samsung or iPhone was the dream gift for many.

That’s fine ... however we don’t know about you but we reckon the use of a mobile phone can consume some people’s lives, as a member of the Nuts and Bolts team experienced three times over the holiday period.

First he was out for a birthday meal with his partner at a very popular Kennington eatery.

Sitting on the table next to them were a couple, with three older-looking teenage ‘children’.

After a few minutes our N& B’er noticed that all five were absolutely engrossed in their mobile phones (probably iPhones) on which presumably they were either composing text messages, surfing the internet or using social media.

Now apart from briefly responding (amazingly by mouth ... not text message) to the waitress’s verbal queries of “Is everything okay with your meal?” and “Can I get you anything else?” the quintet spent the entire time they were in the restaurant immersed in mobile obsessiveness, without a single spoken word passing between them.

So the art of conversation in that family is obviously dead.

The second example of mobile obsession happened to our colleague the following day in Cineworld at Eureka Park where a chap in his thirties sitting in front of him and his partner spent the entire prelude to the film, after the lights had gone down, flicking through emails on his iPhone ... like his life depended on it.

And finally, two days later as the same colleague waited behind someone being served in a checkout line at Sainsbury’s, that person’s phone went off and they continued some inane conversation with the caller rather than packing their bag.

Finally the woman said: “Look, I better go because I’m at the checkout and holding up the queue, call you back, love you lots!”

Yes my dear, you were holding up the rest of us and we were not interested in the time you’d be arriving at your sister’s for her New Year’s Eve party, thought our colleague.

So as well as the usual New Year resolutions people make – to lose weight, quit smoking or exercise more, etc – perhaps another should be added for the mobile phone fanatic ....

If you can’t give up your iPhone mania completely, at least try cutting down on usage when it impinges on the lives of others.

So, in homage to our phoneobsessed silent restaurant diners we’ve come up with a top 15 list of suitable dishes they could enjoy while continuing to surf the net or send or receive text messages. (1) Hushroom soup (2) Boeuf logging-on (3) Shhhhhhhhhhh-epherd’s pie (4) Surf and turf (5) Call-zone (6) Gnocchi-a (7) Ham on the phone (8) Text-Mex (9) Ctrl..salt..de-meat (10) Call-iflower cheese (11) T-phone steak (12) Call-marinières (13) Talk chop (14) Spam (15) Chicken call-crazy