We had a get together this weekend at a friends house to celebrate two birthdays for members of the wedding/party band that I am the drummer for, and it was a great time.

And I think I know why.

It had a lot to do with the people involved, of course, but more so to do with the fact that we were all engaged in a card game around a table, talking, laughing, poking fun, and enjoying one another’s company.

Not staring at our phones.

It’s not that our cell phones are terrible devices or trying to steal our attention away from life.

They’re inanimate objects; they have no motivation or agenda.

We give them that power though, by constantly looking at the screen for no other reason than to replace staring into the fridge to see what’s in there. We just do it.

Whenever I go to a restaurant and they ask if I would like a tablet to play games on till my food arrives, I politely decline, but in my head I think “No, neither I, nor my lunch companion would like to ignore one another, we can actually carry on a conversation with one another and would actually like to do that.”

I never say that, but I really want to. But my mother raised me to have manners so I don’t.

I have instituted a no cell phones at the table rule. I am guilty of breaking it, as is my daughter, but we try to hold each other accountable.

And by that I mean, she jumps on me as soon as she can because it’s always fun to catch your parents breaking their own rules! (And man, she doesn’t miss a single time, either!)

Ben Cox is the host of “Ben Cox in the Morning” weekday mornings from 6 to 9 on KQBZ, 96.9 FM in Brownwood Texas. He is the in-stadium voice of the Howard Payne Yellow Jackets football team and is also a mobile DJ for weddings, parties and the like. He can be contacted via this website.

The thoughts and comments reflected in this column are those of the writer alone, and do not necessarily reflect those of Wendlee Broadcasting, or its affiliates.