It started with the new van that closes the doors for me. While I truly enjoy being able to push a button and watch the door close on it's own whilst I hoist a small person and a purse and a bag of groceries, there is still just something ridiculous about it that unnerves me. Who do I think I am really, that I need doors to be shut for me? What kind of person is this lazy or uncoordinated?
The Man bought a Bluetooth for his phone a while back. He works in a state that does not allow you to talk on the phone while driving, so it's either use a headset or pull over. Unfortunately, he soon found that he couldn't hear very well on it. He said I could have it, and set it up for me. (I can hear on it just fine, because I have my mother's supersonic hearing. Remind me to tell that story later.)
So I went out to run some errands the other day, and took the new toy with me. I put it in my ear and immediately felt important, because clearly unimportant people would not need to have something this dandy. The Man said I looked like the Borg. I went about town, doing my errands, and wondered who I could call to try it out. This was when I realized that the new toy fell into my pretentious category. I only talk to probably four people on my cell phone, and one of them had just reminded me that resistance is futile. (If you aren't a Trekkie that was totally not funny, I know.) I finally decided to call my best friend to ask her a question about some plans for the weekend. That's it. Haven't used it since. I just do not lead a life that requires me to be that plugged in to other people 24 hours a day. And while I joke about it, at the same time I do find it very sad that people use this kind of technology to 'communicate', and miss the reality that they close themselves off to the real live people in front of them. I see it everywhere: a man and wife having dinner out, and the man has his ear plugged in to some other person.... a mom picking her kid up from school, also plugged in to some other person who isn't in front of her. And I wonder, how does that wife feel? How does that child feel? To be the person who is so uninteresting to you, that you can't even be bothered to talk to them while you share a meal? That you can't hang up and greet your child that you haven't seen all day? Unplug people, seriously! What the heck do you have to talk about that is more important than the person you are with?
3 comments:
I'll be calling you up tomorrow to complain about the dream that I'm certain to have of the borged-out Jean Luc Picard...
I so hear you on the Bluetooth thing. Hubby has one and I sometimes borrow it so I can have a marathon chat with my folks (unlimited weekend minutes are a wonderful thing!) while still doing something like folding laundry, but I do hate it when I see people yapping away on them while in another's company. The joys AND the frustrations of technology!
I kwym... and I have to say that one of THE biggest pet peeves in the history of the world are people who talk on the phone while interacting with others :@ (i.e. paying for groceries, ordering take out, their kids are talking to themn, etc.) No one can seem to focus on one thing at a time anymore. I also have to say that I would feel like a COMPLETE TOOL walking around with one of those on :P Not that I mean people who wear them are tools, LOL, I would just feel like I'm being pretentious too :P
The other day, when bringing the kids home from school, a lady with a cellphone attached to her face ran a Stop sign. She jammed the breaks and luckily, I was far enough away to see it coming so there was no close call. She kept waving to me as if apologizing after stopping,and then started going again. It was only then I noticed she STILL had the phone in her ear. From, SIL
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