Day: July 19, 2011

Was out and about today and noticed some things about the society.

I couldn’t help feeling like the Zombie Apocalypse has happened.

Oh nobody was walking around moaning “Brains”… But virtually all of the people were walking around engaged in their cell conversations, texts, or on the internet, They were completely oblivious to the people physically around them.

It was weird…

As readers may recall, I found myself in this mindless state a couple of months ago. I walked around South Coast Plaza chatting like a moron with one of my best friends, completely oblivious to how rude I was being to other shoppers.  So I’m not throwing stones here, Just observing the phenomena.

Our technology is an interesting thing. We create the technology in an effort  to improve our connectedness and while we’re connected to our friends, FaceBook, and the internet… We’re alone in a crowd, shopping, or at a restaurant. I’ve watched people on dates interrupt their conversations to read the latest text message or friends posting on FaceBook.

I don’t know what the world would look like today if the cell net went down and stayed down.

I remember sitting in a bar after the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 watching business people killing the batteries in their “BRICK” cellphones trying to figure out why they couldn’t make calls. What confused them was that the cell net was up but only 911 calls were being routed through the network.

Today, I suspect that if the cell net were to go down people would loose their minds, I know that I’d be a little cranky!

We also create technology to make our lives easier. (There’s a whole other train of thought regarding this… I’ll save it for another time) Yet in fact it’s easier now to hand a clerk cash.

 Debit and credit cards used to be easier to use. Here’s an example. Think about using a credit card at a gas station.

In the old days, you’d swipe the card, fill your tank, get the receipt and you were on your way. Pretty much all of the machines worked the same way, it was simple, fast, and convenient.

Now you swipe your card and get the third degree. The pump wants to know “Do you want a car wash?”, “Do you want a receipt?”, “Debit or Credit?”, “Enter your PIN or Enter your billing zip code” Sheeesh And of course all this while “PUMP-TOP TV” is blaring at you something inane about the latest celebrity faux-pas.

We’re surrounded by walls of technology or technological distractions. It’s as though we’re trying to insulate ourselves from interacting with each other in person. Yet we’ll spend hours following the posts of our “friends”, playing Angry Birds, or FarmVille. It’s psychotic!

If we spent half the time actually interacting with each other locally rather than fooling ourselves into thinking that we actually have 779 “Friends” we’d probably be a lot happier and a lot less fearful.

So I suggest you turn off the phone, oh sure keep it with you, power it up if you need it, but turn it off.

Then spend a day in THIS reality. Notice the people around you, listen the the banter at a Starbucks.  Interact with each other,  you might find this reality preferable…