Talking while Shopping!

I went to the store the other day and noticed how impersonal the girl at the checkout was. She seemed almost annoyed that I was checking out. I began to observe the other checkers and noticed they too seemed to just do their jobs, no small talk, no smile, same greeting (did you find everything ok)and no good bye, they just moved on to the next customer. I can only blame this phenomenon on, yep you guessed it, CELL PHONES! While observing the checkers I also noticed that 3 out of the 4 customers where either talking or texting on their cell phones. Its no wonder that our society is becoming more selfish, more dis-respectful and less social! I've decided that its time to rejoin society, I am going to hang up before I get to the check out, go out of my way to create small talk with the checker and make it a goal to get a smile out of the person standing in front of me. Have we really come to this? We can't take the time to respect people we don't know? I would have missed out on a lot of frienships with people I met at Gymboree if they didn't give me opportunity to get to know them, I would have been annoyed if someone stood in front of me and talked to someone else while I was trying to help them. I learned a lot about social cues from my many jobs behind a counter ringing people up. I learned how to respond politely, create small talk with strangers, how to politely laugh and act interested, I was able to learn peoples emotions and moods(this comes in handy, you don't want to mess with someone having a BAD day), I use these tools everyday in my life, by ignoring checkers and continuing to talk on my phone I am doing society a disservice. If we don't allow the younger generation to learn these same social cues, our society will continue to become more selfish, and come on beside all that its just RUDE!