In my day, I would often be seen to just sit in my car at the end of my journey without moving. It may have seemed strage to observers, but what I was doing was simply listening to something on my eight track, or cassetteplayer, or later my CD player, finish the track that was giving me such pleasure.
Now, people sit there in their cars and respond to their wassup messages for ages although they are home.
Wives have complained of husbands who never listen to what they say. The frustration that that causes have led many couples to the divorce court. Now, neither husband or wife pays the slightest attention to one another. You see it when a party of people enter a restaurant and sit down. Out come the smartphones and all goes quiet. Nobody says a word to each other at the table. They all speak to people who aren't there.
A young woman has been killed because she was looking at her smartphone instead of where she was going. She walked in front of a tram and was run over. That is so sad, and a prime example of how serious this trend can be.
I noticed a car come to stop at a red light, and a second car drew up behind. Both drivers had their head buried in their phones, so they didn't notice that the light had changed to green. It changed back to red and they were still immersed. Finally, they realised they should be checking for green. There was a time when the second car would have honked if the lead car did not move instantly they got the green. .
I no longer go to see movies in the cinema because if the person next to me loses interest in the movie, out comes the phone and I have to put up with this bright light that distracts me. Whatever happened to the usual pest who simply talked all the way through because he had seen the movie before?
I am a person who, from time to time has done public speaking. If someone in the audience didn't like the speaker, traditionally you could expect heckling. These days they simply record your speech and send it worldwide with the question: Do you think this is the most boring person on earth, or what?
The alcholic who sits in the street talking to himself has always been a feature of society. A comic said that perhaps we should not make fun of such people because as far as we knew, he might have been having a conversation with a friend across town. The alcholic is still there doing his thing, but now he is joined by all of us drivers with bluetooth who drive along talking up a storm to nobody we can see. But, they do hear voices in their heads as they use their handsfree devices, and those disembodied voices are coming from across town, or the country, and even some are from other countries.
I truly do want to live to celebrate at least my 100th birthday, just so that I can see where this world will be at that point. By then our cars will be driving themselves which will leave us free to think of other things to do enroute.
Any thoughts?
Copyright (c) 2015 Eugene Carmichael
