I want to know your opinion of people texting during AA or Al-Anon meetings.
Go ahead. It's free.
todAAy i AAm grAAteful & thAAnkful
for the tools I've learned in Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, such as ...
... restraint of tongue and pen This keeps me out of trouble. I don't have to create more wreckage.
... live and let live The practice of Step 3. I don't need to control the world. It does just fine without my hands all over everything.
... let go of expectations My expectations are future resentments.
... I'd rather be happy than right See all of the above. LOL
It is never too late to give up your prejudices.
- Henry David Thoreau
todAAy i AAm grAAteful & thAAnkful
for the tools I've learned in Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, such as ...
... restraint of tongue and pen This keeps me out of trouble. I don't have to create more wreckage.
... live and let live The practice of Step 3. I don't need to control the world. It does just fine without my hands all over everything.
... let go of expectations My expectations are future resentments.
... I'd rather be happy than right See all of the above. LOL
It is never too late to give up your prejudices.
- Henry David Thoreau
14 comments:
I don't like texting or phone calls during meetings. To me it is disrespectful of the group. I think that Live and Let Live can open up the door to a whole lot of unacceptable behavior and an excuse to do as one pleases. Just my thoughts.
I don't text or receive texts during meetings, I'm in the meeting to be a part of the meeting. I feel the same when I'm at dinner or at any other event. I should be giving what's in front of me my full attention. I have learned this over time and haven't been perfect.
I also suggest that my sponsees show the same respect, they choose for themselves, but I strongly suggest it.
I do have the big book on my blackberry though, so sometimes I look up stuff when someone says something, but usually I have a little Big Book with me so as not to create confusion or distraction with a blackberry being out and in use.
I am distracted when someone else is texting so I have begun turning my phone off during meetings so as not to have it even vibrate. I want to be in the present so I do what I can for myself.
If it doesn't make any noise it doesn't bother me, just as someone knitting or sketching.
I will respond to a text from my sponsee, telling him I'm in a meeting. Anyone else I ignore. If the phone rings (silently), I may go answer it outside the room if it is someone who knows that I'm in a meeting, because then it might be an emergency.
I have been known to fiddle around on my phone during 'How it Works', but I'm not proud.
I think it is unbearably rude. But then I know two people who text each other during the meeting to mock the person who is sharing. It kind of colors the way you see people texting during meetings.
Once I was out at a meeting in LA, and I was sitting directly behind a couple of rather famous hollywood starlets who were clearly court ordered to be at the meeting rather than wanting to be there. I didn't recognize them at the time. I almost tapped one of them on the shoulder and told her:
"Turn off the goddamn phone: some of us want to be here." but I didn't. Later, when a friend told me who they were, I wished I had. Now, slightly more mature, I'm glad I didn't.
I knit during meetings and so does my sponsor. I'm a writer, and I think it takes a different kind of attention to text than it does to knit. I can't text or write and listen at a meeting at the same time. However, sometimes knitting allows me to be more open to the sharing. I only knit "mindless" stuff that doesn't require me to read patterns. I mean, why go to a meeting if I can't hear what's being said?
I have been the one who forgot to leave my phone in the car and it went off in the meeting. It felt horrible and I am careful now to leave my phone in the car. We ask that everyone turn off their phones. A simple reminder works for us. Texting is distracting to me, like people whispering in a movie. I can ask them to stop or deal with it. I usually suffer in silence. But then I'm an Alanoner :-D
♥namaste♥
Our group asks that people at the beginning of the meeting to turn off their cell phones or put them on vibrate. I've never seen anyone text in a meeting.
Upto present, he said crossing his fingers, this has not been too much of a problem. There are some that will just drop anythng to take a phone call and in truth they drop AA after a while.
My electronic gewgaws stay in the car during meetings, where they belong.
I can think of all sorts of cute ideas and punishments but, basically, I don't like it and will avoid meetings and groups where it seems tolerated.
Blessings and aloha...
OMG... Restraint of tongue and pen??... I didn't get to read that one in time...!
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