Everybody’s looking down

Tags

bb, blackberry, consumerism, iPad, keyboard, kids, losing perspective, mobile phones, QWERTY, smart phone, smartphoneized, sms, techonology, texting

I went to the doc today (Ear doc, got my ears squeaky clean 😀 nothing serious). I entered the waiting room said “Good morning” (Miss Manners would be so proud!), got no answer and went straight to the counter. Talked to the secretary and she instructed me to sit down and wait for my turn.

As I sat down in this brown, uncomfortable sitting room chair I looked around and counted 12 faceless people there.

Faceless? no I didn’t enter the twilight zone, I say faceless because even though there were 12 people there, I couldn’t see any of their faces.

Everybody was looking down.

Well, actually every person there but one was looking down. Every person there but me was entertained holding a piece of technology. There was this woman in front of me reading from her Kindle and chatting on her BB at the same time (multitasking much?).

Then there was this girl who sat down on the chair right next to me. I smiled at her as she sat down but she didn’t even notice because she was busy moving her thumbs at the speed of light on the qwerty keyboard of her BB (needless to say, the continuous beeps her BB emitted drove me nuts!)

There was this guy to my left, with the hands free cord attached to his BB, who answered continuous less than 1 minute calls while checking Facebook. (didn’t mean to be nosy but I mean, it’s impossible not to look at what people are doing when they sit right next to you).

Then there was this man who kept answering calls from what seemed to be all his kids. He spoke out loud and we could all listen over and over that his doctor had not arrived yet, that he was waiting for his turn, that his test results were still not delivered and that he probably was going to be out of there after lunch.

There was this father who was watching a movie on the plasma TV there (Chris Farley and David Spade singing “Eres tu” while driving into the horizon :S ) while sipping coffee from a paper cup and continuously adjusting the settings on his BB for his 7-year-old to play Tetris.

Oh and let’s not forget the teen girl who was playing solitaire on her iPad but didn’t seem to be enjoying the entertainment or she wouldn’t have had the “I’m bored out of my mind, don’t want to be here” face.

I could keep going but you all pretty got the picture. Everyone was looking down, virtually connected but never interacting with the people in the room.

I waited a good half an hour, and not once did anyone interact with each other.

Somebody stop her!

What did we do before technology became part of our daily life?

For starters we smiled more at each other.
We spoke more and actually met people personally without the need of reading profiles!
We held our heads high much longer! 😀

I don’t have a smart phone. I don’t need one. I only need a device to make/receive calls, send occasional texts, and that’s it. I still don’t find the need to be available for people 24/7. I find that a little too intrusive.

Don’t get me wrong, I love gadgets. There’s a geek inside of me. I would be more than broke if I gave in and bought all the gadgets I want and dream of! But I also haven’t lost perspective.

The problem with folks today is that they fall prey to consumerism. You don’t need it or know how to use it, but since you can afford it, you get it anyway. Some even get it knowing beforehand that they can’t afford it.

What’s scary is that it’s not only a grown up problem. Kids are suffering from this too. While searching for an image for my post, I came upon two posts on how everyone including kids are now “smartphoneized” at The Mobile Perspective and Lady Geek. Check them out.

What ever happened to the days where Easy Bake Ovens and GI Joe action figures were all of what girls and boys wanted?

I think it’s up to us to keep our kids from falling into this bandwagon. It’s up to us to teach our kids to move forward with their heads held up high. Don’t you think? 😉