Saturday, February 19, 2005
Imprisoned in a Technological Bubble of Our Own Making?
Posted by Jonathon Watkins in "OFF-TOPIC" @ 06:00 AM
"Blogs on PDAs, MP3 players, podcasting, cell phones -- just how far into your own digital navel can you gaze before you drop out of any sort of face-to-face interaction? And if you look up from your laptop, Game Boy or personal DVD player you'll see that you're far from the only one plugged into your own world. . . . While these gizmos are marketed as things that can bring us together (like being in 24/7 contact via cell phones), they often serve to isolate. Each of us populates a personal tech-bubble of one. Solo-tech-travelers often are unaware that others occupy the same dimensions as them -- that's why they often bump into others, in their cars or on foot. . . . And people get so sucked in and preoccupied that they don't even put down their cell phones when being helped by store clerks; headphones stay clamped on a head that continues to bop to whatever song is too good to pause for the sake of, um, common courtesy."
Prisoners in our own bubbles?
D. Pravaz from the Seattle Post has written a reflective article about the effects of technology on social interaction. Technology makes it a lot easier to maintain contact with people over longer distances, yet ironically it pushes away people who are physically closer to us. He compares taking a train journey a few years ago to the same journey now, and reflects that the removal of the chance meetings and interactions with fellow travellers wipes all social fingerprints off us, leaving us untouched and alone.
I write this post while travelling on the train myself. In front of me are two people shouting into their mobile phones, not so silently cursing as the signal is lost every five minutes. Just behind them are two people, symmetrically and systematically staring out of the windows either side of the train, each unconsciously nodding along to the tunes distilled through their silver earphones. Me? I'm typing this while listening to Delerium by Capercaillie on my own headphones, quite happy in my own bubble thank you very much. The woman on the opposite aisle (or should that be isle?) looked at me, nodded towards the two guys on the phone, rolled here eyes, got up and moved into a different carriage. One of the guys finished his fifth phone call (not counting recalls after being disconnected), opened up his laptop and plugged in his white earbuds. He moved from a long distance bubble to a more localised one to block us out. But that's fair, as we had put on our headphones to shut him out.
I did consider showing one of the consideration cards to the guys on the phone, but chickened out. Why make trouble when I was protected by my aural contraception? I know where D. Pravaz is coming from. I can see the lack of common courtesy that gadgets can garner. Equally I can see the benefits they bring. In the end, D. Parvaz decided to reluctantly submit and accepts his own personal bubble. It's a bittersweet article. Technology gives and technology takes away. May the name of technology be praised?
Prisoners in our own bubbles?
D. Pravaz from the Seattle Post has written a reflective article about the effects of technology on social interaction. Technology makes it a lot easier to maintain contact with people over longer distances, yet ironically it pushes away people who are physically closer to us. He compares taking a train journey a few years ago to the same journey now, and reflects that the removal of the chance meetings and interactions with fellow travellers wipes all social fingerprints off us, leaving us untouched and alone.
I write this post while travelling on the train myself. In front of me are two people shouting into their mobile phones, not so silently cursing as the signal is lost every five minutes. Just behind them are two people, symmetrically and systematically staring out of the windows either side of the train, each unconsciously nodding along to the tunes distilled through their silver earphones. Me? I'm typing this while listening to Delerium by Capercaillie on my own headphones, quite happy in my own bubble thank you very much. The woman on the opposite aisle (or should that be isle?) looked at me, nodded towards the two guys on the phone, rolled here eyes, got up and moved into a different carriage. One of the guys finished his fifth phone call (not counting recalls after being disconnected), opened up his laptop and plugged in his white earbuds. He moved from a long distance bubble to a more localised one to block us out. But that's fair, as we had put on our headphones to shut him out.
I did consider showing one of the consideration cards to the guys on the phone, but chickened out. Why make trouble when I was protected by my aural contraception? I know where D. Pravaz is coming from. I can see the lack of common courtesy that gadgets can garner. Equally I can see the benefits they bring. In the end, D. Parvaz decided to reluctantly submit and accepts his own personal bubble. It's a bittersweet article. Technology gives and technology takes away. May the name of technology be praised?
