Something Ms. Moon said, the other day: how dependent we are on our electronics.
We carry the phone with us now, or a laptop, or anything else that will allow us to keep in nearly constant contact with someone else. It's as if a strange enemy has invaded us, taken over our homes, our lives, and our travels, and we don't even realize that we've been colonized.
I saw an ad, years ago, that showed how electronic devices 'keep the family together". Daddy was on the computer, Mother was using a laptop, the two boys were duking it on on their own devices, and sister was on her cellphone. Not one of them was looking at anyone else, and all the communication was outside, not inside.
This is not togetherness, this is apartness, bunched in one small room.
If this had been an image from the 60s or 70s there would have been a TV (with remote) with at least two people watching, two of the kids would be on the floor playing a board game, and one would be on the phone to her best friend.
And the same scenario in the 40s, showing everyone gathered around a piano, singing while sister or Mom played.
Years ago I read a fascinating and very short story, (science fiction sometimes is chillingly accurate) about the last two people on earth, one man, one woman, separated by hundreds of miles, but each with a computer, and they could communicate. At the end of the story, they had just had a fight, and blocked each other permanently. Now the last two people on earth were truly alone, only they didn't know it yet.
Sometimes I think we're heading the same way.
Very good thinking. I have seen people sitting in the same room and texting each other on their cell phones I have quit being online as much as I used to. very good writing dear.
ReplyDeletewell thank you, Harvey.
ReplyDeleteI've seen the same thing, and it does seem silly. Of course, it also means they don't disturb anyone with chatter, too.
I hope not.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it would be more scary not realising there was one other individual left alive? One might find oneself talking to a basketball called Wilson?
ReplyDeleteThen again, if you think you're the last person left alive, it really isn't going to matter, is it. And who knows, maybe Wilson the Basketball could turn out to be an agreeable soul, after all.
ReplyDeleteOne REALLY scary image: you pick a fight with Wilson, and deflate his ego.