Dr. Aziz gives brief, practical advice on how to approach people who are absorbed in their phones. Using a personal anecdote from his son's basketball practice, he argues that most phone activity is trivial and that people secretly crave connection; therefore, approaching them with a simple, friendly line (e.g., 'Hey, how's it going?' or 'Which one's your kid?') is a gift and will often start a conversation.
Here's exactly how to approach people out in the world, especially when they're on their cell phone. So just the other day I was at my son's first basketball practice. He's about 10 years old and there's a bunch of other parents there and all of them are on their phone. Everybody's just glued into their phone. And I noticed there's an impulse like, oh, I don't want to bother people. And here's how you shift that. Number one, realize that what are people doing on their phone 95% of the time is bullshit. No offense. They might be working. I'm getting some power work done here on my kids back. No, you're like checking emails, you're doing some busy work and you're probably just looking at some social media stuff and flicking through the scre screen. So when you know that, when what they're doing is bullshit. And number two, deep down inside they're hungering for connection, just like all of us are, whether they know it or not. Then when you really know that you're doing them a gift by approaching them and you just walk over, you don't need the best pickup or approach line. You just say, hey, how's it going? Hey, what does your son do here? Hey, which one's your kid? And then boom, you're into a conversation.
