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On Buses and Gadgets
Observation
I'm at the back of the bus. There are two rows of three seats that face each other and then the back wall of five seats forming a little box there. Two black guys are sitting in seats directly across from one another. They have nifty little T-Mobile devices that they're playing backgammon and such on.
This black woman comes and sits next to one of them. (I note race only because for some reason I've never encountered black people on a bus before who HAVEN'T felt perfectly comfortable picking on each other, even perfect strangers, so this in some sense vindicates their casual conversation.) She notices their playing on these devices and she makes them show her a few fun things like the clever sliding screen, and then she says, "Are you talking on those devices? To each other?" They indicate yes. "Shut it again for me. Go on, do it." She badgers them until they both shut their toys.
Then she says, "Have you ever thought of talking to each other without those?"
One guy shrugs and says, "Sure." He pulls out his cell phone and calls the other guy on HIS cell phone.
Rant
The woman thought it was very funny at first; we all did, we were all laughing. I expected the conversation to end there. But a minute or two later she started up again. "Have you ever gone an hour without those gadgets?" "How long can you go without them?" "Maybe you should try it," condescendingly, as if you've never truly lived life until you've gone outside without a cell phone in your pocket.
I'm so annoyed at people like my mother and this woman who think that their opinions on your lifestyle are so much more important than your enjoyment of yourself. So what if they're playing backgammon with each other on a gadget when they're sitting a foot apart? They don't have a backgammon board on the bus with them. It's called convenience, it doesn't render them drooling morons in any non-digital situation.
I don't want you to tell me how to dress, how to speak to my friends, or how to spend my time on a goddamn bus.
I'm at the back of the bus. There are two rows of three seats that face each other and then the back wall of five seats forming a little box there. Two black guys are sitting in seats directly across from one another. They have nifty little T-Mobile devices that they're playing backgammon and such on.
This black woman comes and sits next to one of them. (I note race only because for some reason I've never encountered black people on a bus before who HAVEN'T felt perfectly comfortable picking on each other, even perfect strangers, so this in some sense vindicates their casual conversation.) She notices their playing on these devices and she makes them show her a few fun things like the clever sliding screen, and then she says, "Are you talking on those devices? To each other?" They indicate yes. "Shut it again for me. Go on, do it." She badgers them until they both shut their toys.
Then she says, "Have you ever thought of talking to each other without those?"
One guy shrugs and says, "Sure." He pulls out his cell phone and calls the other guy on HIS cell phone.
Rant
The woman thought it was very funny at first; we all did, we were all laughing. I expected the conversation to end there. But a minute or two later she started up again. "Have you ever gone an hour without those gadgets?" "How long can you go without them?" "Maybe you should try it," condescendingly, as if you've never truly lived life until you've gone outside without a cell phone in your pocket.
I'm so annoyed at people like my mother and this woman who think that their opinions on your lifestyle are so much more important than your enjoyment of yourself. So what if they're playing backgammon with each other on a gadget when they're sitting a foot apart? They don't have a backgammon board on the bus with them. It's called convenience, it doesn't render them drooling morons in any non-digital situation.
I don't want you to tell me how to dress, how to speak to my friends, or how to spend my time on a goddamn bus.
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One of the great awesome moments of my married life was when
From a parenting blog I read (like, one of maybe four good parenting blogs out of thirty million of them): I do think that people have different ideas about media influence on children largely driven by their own experiences with media - that is if you feel that media has a negative influence on you, you tend to protect your children from it, and if you enjoy media, then you encourage your children to enjoy it. Which is totally true, and I hadn't thought about it, but it totally explains this woman AND your mother AND my mother AND
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But the cell phone part had me cracking up, and I was pretending to be listening to my iPod instead of eavesdropping. *cough*
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"Why are you on the computer so much?"
"Well, I'm reading things, talking to people, fiddling with various writing and drawing functions made easier, and maybe playing games occasionally."
"...You shouldn't play that many games. Scale back the computer time. "
*Asplode*