Time for a "You kids get off my lawn post" also known as a grumpy old dude post.
One of the things I enjoy these days during my many trips to the
"outside world" is People Watching. People are fun to observe these days
especially those GLUED to the cell phone screen.
While I
expected to see the usual number of young people immersed in "The
Gadget", These days, I see huge numbers of people ranging in age from
Great Grandmothers/fathers down through pre-teens vast numbers of people
who wander Zombie-like gazing into the screen of an iPhone/Pad or
whatever. The crowds include everyone, those who bathe once a week
whether they need it or not, to those who live and breath the pages of
Vogue.
What are they looking at? What is displayed that is so
enchanting that they bump into walls, cross streets into traffic, or
fall down stairs oblivious to surroundings all because of the laser like
focus devoted to several inches of plastic...
What are they looking at?
Those of you who know me know I am a "Gadget" guy, I had a cellphone
since the days of bag phones, and was thrilled when the Motorola "Brick"
was marketed as it weighed less than 10lbs. When I was medically
retired my decades free cell service was discontinued and frankly after
being chained to a phone for 20 years 24 hours a day 7 days a week, the
loss of that perk was a relief. My last phone was the iPhone 4G with all
the toys yet I never spent my time gazing "Lovingly" into the screen,
other than when I was looking for specific information. Now it seems 90%
of the population is totally wrapped up into tweets or maybe "Angry
Birds" is that still hot?... As you can tell from my FB activity I am
not a heavy user of so called social media so I don't "Get it".. Now if
there was "Anti-Social Media" that would be a different story...
Maybe I'm just too old, or too jaded to understand the attraction.
In
a lot of respects, I see the fixation with cellphones as an extension
of the old CB Radio craze of the 70's. Then as now the primary reason to
own one was communication and it devolved into a social expression of
empowerment. In the beginning the only
users of cellphones were those in business such as doctors and others
in an "appointment" based profession such as Realtors. Now possession of
these devices has devolved to the "People of Wal-Mart" strata who
really have no immediate need for contact and who view them as items of
social empowerment. What the heck, watching people stumble through life
glued to one is a fun activity, but my "amusement" threshold is pretty
low these days
That's the story for now, until next time....
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