You know The Drill. "Could everybody please take the time to turn off ALL of your Portable Devices..." and of course almost inevitably, one of those 'portable devices' goes off, whether it be in the Movie Theater or Church. In Church, my Minister usually makes a joke of it. In a recent showing of an art film about an 18th Century Painter, the interruption came to blows and mace sprayed. And both of the offending Parties being dragged out of the theater by the Police.
Our love affair with or 'portable devices,' whether they be phones, tablets or laptops, most of Society forgets was not there but for a short while ago. Prior to this Century, the practicality of the mobile device (except the laptop and modern web-enabled cell) was still in the realm of science fiction (thank You Gene Roddenberry, who envisioned the tablet back in 1963 -- what became the "DataPad" in Star Trek). For that matter, the idea of the Internet and its various modern applications was only science fiction until late in the last century.
God forbid I get one of my friends back East any where near the topic of "kids these days." Many of us who use that phrase now, used to groan when hearing it used with us. But now, it centers around the ever present and habitual (need I say, addicted?) use of the cell phone. The issue of texting however, is not quite the same as the issue of having long hair (unless you work in a factory). She rails against the over usage by teens and twenty-somethings (occasionally extending to the 'below 40 set in it's entirety) and their pre-occupation with texting.
This is kind of the be-all/end all of issues for her. She can't stand going into a store and finding the service employees busier with their phones than with her, the Customer. I have even witnessed two girls having a conversation via text, one of them laughing at what she reads and the other one smiling and texting the comeback. This seems a bit obsessive even to me, but Im guessing that allows them the 'privacy' (they think, although some computer is parsing their 'lol's' and other 'deep conversation' somewhere) to say whatever they think (OMG lol!)
On the negative side, 'Real Communication is dead,' the belief goes, and unfortunately, that's probably true for many. Gossip is the 'deep conversation' of the day, not any real in-depth discussion. This is indeed the 'bad side' of it.
On the good side, there are leaps in technology being done that can move us forward, despite all the other stuff (entertainment, the true opiate of the masses) and truncated thought (OMG). The Vision of Roddenberry and other Science Fiction authors and visionaries is taking us to new heights as far as what we can do with technology. This should lead to innovation (and not just in the entertainment area of life) and breakthroughs that all but the most visionary can see.
Warp Drive, Teleportation and other previous staples of Science 'Fiction' that were once laughed at, may soon be on our tablet of knowledge, no longer tabula rasa or fantasy. What we do with it as a Race (the Human Race here, since in the end there are no individual 'races' as was once believed), is still a question up for grab. Will we use it to grow? Or to continue to sink into the mire of time- and potential-wasting activities? ONly the true Visionaries know for sure.
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