I went for a walk just now before making myself some
lunch. In my wandering I came across a
man out cleaning up his yard a bit. He
was wearing a large set of headphones that looked like they could have a radio
(at least that’s what I gathered from the antenna sticking up). I was reminded upon seeing him of a common
sight while I waited for the train home from work. The platform where I caught the train ended
in an intersection and generally waited for the train close to the intersection. I routinely watched drivers and passengers as
they came to the intersection and waited for the light to change. I noticed after a while that a considerable
majority of the drivers would
immediately look down at their phones as soon as they came to a stop and
many of those would type a message while they waited.
That behavior reminded me of Ray Bradbury’s wonderful short
story “The Murderer” in
which the protagonist is subjected to psychological evaluation for having
destroyed appliances in his home because of the music and spoken messages they
spouted. In relaying his reasoning for
the destruction he recounts listening to passengers on the bus speaking in
their wrist phones; their conversations were meaningless (reporting exactly
where they were at any given moment of their journey) but they evidently felt
compelled to conduct them regardless.
Bradbury was a bit off of course as many futurists are
(texting and tweeting etc. have displaced verbal communication) but the essence
of his vision is remarkably prescient.
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