Time to unplug….

What is this obsession people have with media these days? It drives me crazy. As I walk down the streets of San Francisco, if someone is not listening to an iPod, it is probably because they are talking on their cell phone, watching a hand held TV ( or Video iPod) or playing a hand held game. Same thing when I ride BART, the local commuter train home. I would venture that 80% or more of the people are on phones, iPods, or playing a video game.

I have been walked into, bumped and pushed, or otherwise ignored as I say ‘excuse me’ by people as they talk and listen through their whole life, not seeing that anything exists in the world around them. The number of blogs and articles even here about not being able to live without your iPod for various reasons ‘¦ what did you do before you had it?

I went to dinner with my family the other night, and saw the usual new ‘nuclear’ family at the next table. The oldest daughter was on the cell phone. A younger brother was listening to his iPod and tapping the table with a French fry, while the smallest brother was playing with a Sony handheld game system. The parents hardly said a word to each other the whole evening, as he watched the TV playing sports in the bar and she just sat and stared at her food. The kids said nothing to anyone the entire evening.

As I drive down the freeway, I see more and more large SUV’s and some smaller cars with TVs playing in the back seat for the kids. I often wonder how we as kids survived the car rides without the constant stimulation of TV blasting in our faces. I find it sad that kids today cannot even drive to the store or across town with Mom or Dad and not have to be constantly entertained with TV, now appearing in the car of all places. I think the real reason is that parents do not wish to actually deal with their kids, so they turn on the electronic babysitter to keep the kids quiet so THEY will not have to actually be parents. (Do not get me wrong, I am NOT anti-TV, and love to watch it as well. But I grew up just fine without needing it in the car when we drove. I actually liked looking out the window and playing car games with my parents and siblings. What a concept!)

And at a live music show recently in Grass Valley, CA, a place I would least expect to see this stuff, there were a number of younger people wearing iPods AT THE CONCERT! Now what is up with that?

Hello people? Get a life! Unplug from your technology once in a while and look around you. There are people out there. There are things to see, sounds to hear, stuff to enjoy if you would just stop and look and listen once in a while. And If you must be attached, how about opening your eyes and looking around you please. There are peolpe out there.

Lastly, I am also saddened by the proliferation of cheap digital cameras as more and more people can now NOT see where they actually are without the camera. As I travel around the globe with my wife, I am amused to watch tourists spending more time playing with their digital cameras to try and take a picture of what there is to see, than actually seeing what there is to see. In Scotland, I watched a group of younger people (in mid-20’s) looking at pictures on their digital camera of the area THEY WERE STANDING IN RIGHT THEN rather than actually looking for real. We stopped near a large castle and got out of our car for a look. At least 10 cars stopped for all of 15 seconds, got out and snapped a picture on their digital camera, spent another 15 making sure it looked good on the screen, and then drove on.

SIGH!

I LOVE technology, and I am surrounded by it all the time. But as I have said before, I do NOT own an iPod, a handheld video game, and I do not have a phone attached to my belt! I like listening to the sounds of the city, the country, or, if driving, the radio. I do not have to be on the phone all the time, and mostly, unless an emergency, do not talk on the phone in public. I think all this technology is turning the world anti-social, and it is no wonder we are and will have more and more problems between people.

And now personal video glasses that let you walk and see where you are going while having a ‘big screen’ TV hanging in front of your face. I cannot wait to see the problems that will cause.