Somebody knocks at your door

They know you are home because they can see you inside your house

You go to the door and see a man there but decide not to open it because you do not recognize him

You are now both looking at each other through a window next to the door

He points to the door gesturing a request for you to open it, you write down a note

“what do you want?” and hold it to the window

He reads it and writes a note back “I am your new neighbor”

You write another note “hi nice to meet you” and he writes “can you do me a favor please”

You make him wait ten minutes and hold up another note “what do you want?”

He writes “your car is blocking my driveway, is there any chance you could move it please”

To be sure he is genuine you go back inside and look up home sales to verify the house next door recently changed hands

Then you go upstairs to take a look if your car is indeed blocking his driveway

All this time the guy is waiting outside your door

You eventually go back and write him a note “ I need to find my keys, I will be there in a few minutes”.

Forty minutes later you open the door and introduce yourself to your new neighbor.  

This all sounds ridiculous but we do it all the time with cellphones

Screening the caller ID before we decide whether to answer or pausing before responding to a text

Remember the good old days when you always tried to answer a call before three rings?

Before smart phones, If you called somebody on a land line you had a very high expectation of actually talking to a person at the other end

Today everybody has a smart phone in their pocket but its so much harder to speak to them

Imagine how it feels for somebody to see you posting on Facebook while you ignore their calls and texts

Perhaps we consider paying a thousand dollars for a smartphone a worthwhile investment because it comes with a free bad manners App