Friday 22 January 2016

Brr Brr (Ring Tone)



Does the lack of receiving  "x" number of calls on your mobile phone say anything about you ?
Well I suppose firstly, it could indicate you don't have many friends !
Or it could mean your circle of friends don't have phones !
The mobile phone is a relatively new phenomena and those of us who remember the Phone Box with the three pennies in the slot and a button to press when the connection was made will understand how we used to go about our lives without the constant interruption of others. We were genuinely in our own zone, unapproachable, lost to virtually everyone as we walked the streets purposefully engaged in our own world.
Today the phone is never off. We are committed to being available no matter where, no matter when and to all and sundry. The phone and its ability to transform introspection into a chat about something and nothing, perhaps only to say "I am here" is in some ways quite destructive. Couples sitting at a table in the restaurant not talking to each other but on the phone texting someone else has to be such a sad reflection on modern society, "sad" that is if you think it's important for people to make the effort to talk to each other, not so sad if you think there is no point in maintaining a pretence and need to escape a poor coupling.
Of course the smart phone is an Aladdin's Cave, or a Rabbits Hole in which to disappear when seated on your own but it always strikes me that the immediate world around, in the restaurant, or where ever you are, is immeasurably more interesting than a predefined interrogation of news and events which are happening way outside your field of vision or capacity to effect.
This visible world around us which was, up until fairly recently, all we had to captivate our imagination or make sense of in relation to others, has stood the test of time and I am not sure that the modern telecommunication method of abstracting yourself from your real surroundings is anything more than a comparative to the also modern trend of the short term self induced hallucination brought by drugs or alcohol, as an escape.
Perhaps the sensible alternative, an actual 'real time' reality experience is maybe too much effort. Perhaps also dangerous since we are then forced to reveal ourselves in the full light of day as the saying goes.


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