Posted on 11/16/2005 9:06:22 AM PST by Revolting cat!
As mobile communications and media devices proliferate, the nagging worry frequently goes unchallenged: Gadgets like iPods, cell phones and laptops produce an increasingly disconnected public sphere. This is a familiar critique -- last year, a fellow student expressed in the campus newspaper a similar dissatisfaction with the popularity of MP3 players. He argued that, lost in our private worlds of music, we fail to reach out and connect with one another.
Certainly, I wonder about the social impact of new technology -- particularly, the contra...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Seems to me that anyone who wants to lose him/her self in music and ignoring those about her are free to do it.
Ipods, playstations, videogames, sports 24/7... What's the difference?
Why disagree? That is what FreeRepublic ("evil technology") does....it brings decent people together to discuss issues....No doubt mass culture is dying...but I am not sure that is a bad thing....Mass culture is usually garbage....especially as more uncivilized people move into this country and uncivilized people multiple faster than civilized human beings....
The Agitator ( Radley Balko ) correctly makes the point that we are living in an era of unprecedented global communication. Practically anyone can communicate with anyone else, anywhere in the world, right now. I am sitting here in CT, with access to millions via FR anywhere.
What does this mean...who knows...
Interact where? I take the bus to my job every day. Most riders have ipods on, I don't see it any different from my book. I don't want to have a conversation on the bus. I have conversations with my friends and colleagues. I'm not comfortable talking to random people, it's not my style. As far as I can tell, more people like their privacy than like to be bugged in public places.
Walking across a college campus alone, who are the students supposed to be interacting with? I see plenty of one-on-one interaction going on. It's what happens when you get to your destination and take off the headphones. Really, it's no different from listening to the radio in the car on your way to work. Does that promote isolation?
But how is that any different than carrying a book to read in idle time? I'm with the writer, people who don't want to randomly socialize don't whether or not they have some techno gadget. I'm totally not social when out in the world, talking only as much as absolutely necessary unless I already know the person, and I have no iPod or clone, no cellphone, none of the gadgets that people blame for anti-social behavior (and no interest in them). It's not the gadgets, it's the people.
I was sitting at a bar one day and some idiot on the next stool was chattering on the phone telling the other person what he would do when he would be there when he got there, wherever that other person was. It occurred to me that this guy would be doing there the same thing he was doing here now - talking on his cellphone to someone else telling him what he would do when he got there where that someone else was.
I see this as some sort of restlessness, a withdrawal from the unpleasant or boring here and now, and constant urge to be somewhere else, anywhere but here.
This is nothing new. People were running aound with walkmans 25 years ago. The only difference is that the headphones were far better back then. I can't stand those little earbuds. Koss Pro 4-AAs, now those are headphones.
I do mot think that a particularly interesting human beings [there are known examples of very witty, creative people - think of somebody capable of continuous, 24/7/365 improvisation at the level of best scripted performances of, say, Robin Williams] - or even the runner-ups to such a standard will ever be outcompeted by "connectivity devices". And as for the dullards and bores - well, what else could one expect? It serves them right, too.
mot=not. adjacent keys
Books are different. It's a lot harder to walk, drive, or push a shopping cart while one is reading a book. The electronic gear seems to isolate people in a totally different way, too. The danger I see is more with children and young teens who do not have their social skills completely developed yet.
Hehehehe, you might think it's harder to walk with a book but I've been known to walk all the way home (3 miles) with my nose in one.
I don't think it's isolating anyone. I have plenty of friends who use their ipods a lot, but as soon as someone starts talking to them they take the earbuds out. Or when you get to where you're going, you turn it off. Maybe for kids it's a bad thing but should 12 year olds have ipods anyway? That's the parents' decision.
Agree. I was thinking about this the other day:
As the 20th century got rolling, radio and the telephone began to homogenize America. Some musicologists (Alan Lomax for one) realized that some regional musical forms could die out and he wanted to rescue them.
There are many recordings from the 20's, 30's and 40's of Jazz, Blues, Country, Bluegrass and Yiddish music that were made strictly to preserve an artform before it died out.
In the 1950's and 60's, some of those recordings became commercially viable. Led Zeppelin was influenced by Delta Blues people. Woody Guthrie influenced Bob Dylan. Those "dying art forms" from obscure pockets of the US provided a lot of influence to mainstream culture.
Alas, it's all be homoenized now. And where will a fresh, outside-the-mainstream cultural influence come from now? Pygmies of Cameroon? (I actually heard them on NPR. Not good.)
If the ipod and other gadgets help carve out insular cultural islands, maybe it's a good thing. If the sway of the mainstream weakens, new cultural ideas may ferment, grow, and strengthen within an small group of like-minded individuals and eventually bless our broader culture. IMO, the only way this will happen is if pockets of culture exist. Appalachia won't do anymore. But maybe something will come out of Hoboken. Who knows? Niche markets are always where the freshest stuff comes from.
i dnt c d prob w txtmsgng wut bd hbts duz it strt?
TV was the end of socializing; staring at a TV more than 4 hours a day (as most do) pretty much eliminates all social activity. All other gizmos just refine the introversion.
Amen - I'm a municipal court judge, and the kids who come before me, whether for speeding or underage drinking or whatever, are by and large incapable of holding a conversation or looking me in the eye. Mom and Dad often try to talk for them, which is (IMHO) what got the kid where he/she is right now. When the kid looks at Mom after I ask whether he/she can pay the fine, I usually ask, "What are you looking at her for? She didn't [speed, drink, whatever]. If the kid says, "I don't have any money", I tell Mom that if she pays for her kid today, I'm putting her under oath six months from now and having her testify that the kid paid back every dime. This usually brings a smile from Mom and a slack-jawed look from kid. Responsibility isn't being taught, and I think a large part of the reason is that personal interaction is easier to avoid these days. But I ramble...
I used to do it all the time, back in my comic book geek youth I'd walk to the various comic book stores to get my fix, after the first store I'd be reading the comics while walking with my headphones on the whole time. Takes a little practice but it's doable.
I don't see any danger, idle chitchat with random strangers is highly overrated.
Another thing I noticed on public transportation and elsewhere is that people who aren't listening to iPods or chattering on cellphones will oftentimes play, fiddle with their cellphones. Caress them like children caress their toys. Since I never had one, I don't quite know what they could be doing, playing games (?), reviewing the number directory, or what? (They're not text messaging, which in tunnels is unavailable.) I don't ever recall playing with with a home telephone since I was a toddler. Don't tell me that such activity is as rewarding or comparable to reading a book!
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