Crossing All Boundaries

Riding to work on the train this morning, I chanced to glance up from my portable phone-camera waffle iron etc. and noticed a very interesting thing. Among commuters, the obsession with tech gadgets crosses all boundaries of age and any other social demographic you care to name. Here we all are, on the train, heading for work in a hospital, heading for work in the financial district or maybe to a parole hearing. We're all on the same train and we all have one intense interest in common - in ignoring everyone else on the train. And our fabulous assortment of high tech gear makes that so very possible.

I was a little embarrassed to be caught looking around the packed car - but once I started taking a catalogue of what was going on I just couldn't stop. There was the old blind guy (white cane and all) with his ear buds in, rocking out to some high tech tunes. There are a dozen or so furious texters in business suites getting a jump on email for the day, and there's an assortment of people chatting with friends on the phone. Almost everyone on the train has some sort of gadget in the ear - we have electronic books and electronic video games. We have the serious workers who are typing away on the laptop computer, and even the digital watch wearers checking the time.

Everyone is looking at the stuff too - not just the typers and texters. The listeners and chatters are pressing buttons and watching screens. We are all very intent on our little devices, and indeed, all of these provide a fantastic and legitimate distraction.

After I hooked myself back into my own devices, and returned to the serious business of not paying any attention to anyone else, I couldn't help pondering the absurdity. I'm sure many have said it, but this my first media-gadget epiphany. We paid for these things (or stole them) just so we can be connected, so we can stay linked in to what's going on. At the same time, they provide the greatest escape from what is really going on with us. It seems to me we are desperate for those connections at a distance and use them to actively evade the connections right beside us. And we all like things just as they are. I begin picturing a sort of dual reality, where the train was ephemeral and the media web was the more lasting and concrete thing. Then I shook my head a bit and resolved not to eat cold pizza for breakfast in the future.

Maybe it's not really so bad - maybe we're not all turning in to cyborgs. Perhaps we are all just making our best attempts to be where we want to be, and not where we are. I don't know if that will end up being a good thing or a bad thing for us in the future. Maybe it's just a passing fad before we return to the business of living in the real world. But until then, I'll ride to work with my music on and my phone out, just so I won't feel alone.
For more information on gadgets, visit http://gadgetmicroblog.com and http://technoob.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Parks