6 November 2013
This is about a mixture of befuddlement, sadness, and deep concern for the future of our society. On November 1st I boarded a flight out of San Francisco heading back to Dulles in Virginia. At exactly that same time south of us, all hell was breaking loose at LAX in Los Angeles. Within minutes, all on our flight were watching our individual TV screens and catching all the news we could about what was unfolding at LAX. Another senseless mass-shooting for no other reason than we've got a lot of crazy people loose in our midst. What's happened to Decency? Civility? Protecting the basic human right to life that's been granted to every human being? After I got home I started thinking about the tragedy and how very often I am at the terminal where it happened, or the Bradley International Terminal right next to Terminal 3. I fly a lot, and not just in the U.S. but in Asia, too. I noticed something right away when I boarded my flight in California. Not one person in the first five rows of seating looked up from their smart-phones to notice me, or any of the other passengers who were boarding. Maybe it's just my nature to be more observant of who I'm riding with (especially since 9-11). Everybody in the first five rows had smart-phones and were engaged with them. I made a note of it. I looked for someone in those rows who didn't have their heads (and attention) locked into a smart phone. Not one. I've seen too much of this in the past few years in every airport. I have no pity for those robbed of their smart-phones, wallets, purses or backpacks in public places nowadays. Nor do I have any concern that these petty crimes are on the rise. What concerns me is, people are just not taking precaution to observe what's going on around them.
My concern for my own and my family's public safety is one issue. The future concern is the insular society we're becoming (the pattern is being established in our younger population) because of smart devices. You've seen it. I don't have to describe it. It's a totally ignorant disregard for ANYTHING going on around you. It's not as if the miscreants don't realize what they're doing. The greater sin is they totally understand what they're doing. It's a two-step process: Number One: I'm showing off my smart-phone. Number Two: I don't care to humanly engage in speaking to you. I fear for the future society we're creating through this insidious disease. A society that has no care or regard for anything going on around them - until after the fact of something bad happening to them, and a generation of younger people currently, who have lost all ability to humanly communicate with another human being.
I'll be dead and long gone before all that happens and I'll depart with a gratifying twinge of revenge based upon a prediction: Keep your heads bowed down into your smart-phones. All of you will pay the price to neurologists, orthopedists, and chiropractors when you reach my age. Or pay an even higher price: shot or murdered because no one was paying attention. And finally, I will have seen and experienced more of the world about me than you did!
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You are correct. But, we're it not for those (these) devices, you would not be sharing your ideas & perceptions on real time. Being able to communicate with all of mankind is a privilege never before existent. And, since communication & sharing thoughts is the key to mankind's dominance, this may be overall a good thing.
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