At the next table, a couple sat next to each other, the guy smiled faintly at the phone. The girl also chuckled to someone on the other end. Both smiles were very happy, only they were not for each other. He suddenly thought, if one day the phones around the world simultaneously ran out of battery, perhaps many couples would have to re-introduce their names and hobbies.
In the corner of the cafe, there was a gray-haired old man, in front of him was a cup of black coffee. He did not hold his phone but just quietly looked at everyone. Seeing that he was also observing the world, he smiled and asked: "Do you know what the most expensive thing is now?" He immediately replied: "Time. ". He shook his head. "No, it's attention. People are not short of time. It's just that they no longer have the ability to pay full attention to one person, one thing or a moment.
That sentence kept lingering in his head. Indeed, in the old days, people could sit and listen to each other tell a whole story, from the story of the neighbor's cat giving birth to several children to the story of the tea seller getting married, everyone was attentive as if listening to Sherlock Holmes solve the case. Now, as soon as it reached the climax,... "ting!", an announcement appeared. The story immediately ended abruptly.
He once tried a small experiment. When telling stories to friends, he pauses every half minute. If the listener asks: "What else?", it means they are still there. And if they take the opportunity to scroll a few more videos, reply to a few messages and conveniently place a free shipping order, he understands that he just lost... to the algorithm.
Now, sitting together, the phone vibrates, the clock vibrates, the computer displays notifications. Only the person sitting right in front of you is increasingly less likely to "open notifications". Therefore, a meal with no one holding the phone or a ten-minute conversation that is not interrupted suddenly becomes a luxury.
When he left, he saw two men still sitting there earlier. Coffee was cold, the phone was still hot. They were in the same cafe, the same table, the same morning, but each person lived in a different world. He suddenly understood the old man's words: The most expensive thing today is not time, but attention. Because only when you really pay attention to a person, do you truly be with that person.
