It is interesting how mobile phone change social interaction - or perhaps fit it into the social interaction in the brave new world.
Example: in the pre-mobile-phone days, being on a train (in Europe) was an opportunity for starting a conversation with strangers and learning quite interesting stories. My favorite was one told me by a woman whose company was bought by a Korean corporation. After the merger, she had an affair with her Korean boss, but that was against the company policy, so they transferred the boss to a branch in another country. This forced the two to have a long-distance affair and hence frequent travels for the woman, which in turn put a severe strain on her domestic relations. The reason she told me the story was to get an unbiased stranger advice what she should do.
By contrast, not long ago I was on a northbound Metroliner which came to a sudden stop a few miles south of Newark, NJ. A voice came through the intercom informing the passengers that due to technical difficulties the journey would be delayed until a further notice. At this moment, the usual Metroliner silence was disturbed by multiple beeps of mobile dialers, followed by numerous voices saying more or less the same thing: "I am on train, we are delayed, I will call you later."
Some thirty or so minutes later the Metroliner pulled at the Newark station and the voice on the intercom told the passengers to take their luggage and proceed to another train waiting on the other side of the platform. I look through the window and saw a line of human manikins, all dressed in suits and ties, with briefcases in their hands, and mobile phone attached to their ears walking towards the waiting train. It was comical, like the multitude of the seven dwarfs going off to work, carrying their tools, and yakking to their cell phones " Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho, It's home from work we go" but also very sad. It reminded me that as people are getting more and more ways to communicate, they have less and less to say to each other.
Which reminds me of another anecdote - A drunk goes from bar to bar about 4 AM only to see the ominous sign "closed" posted on each door. Suddenly, he notices a crew of workers repairing the road. He gazes at them for a while and then says to himself "they build the fucking roads, but there is nowhere to go to."
Wojtek