Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Cell phone robots. . .

Have you noticed people walking around with their heads down, staring at their palms, as if they were magically reading the future? They look like robots walking down the street, weaving and bobbing, just missing light posts, trashcans, and an occasional bum. They look startled when they realize they just entered an intersection when the red hand on the light was beaming at them. What are these people doing? They're looking at their cell phone. They sit down to eat with their phone on the table so they can't miss an important text or Scrabble opponent's move. Try to have a conversation with these people. They're constantly looking down at their phone. Are they even listening to you? I hear it's the new fad for third graders to have their own phone. The GPS tracks their every move. Mommy needs to know where Junior is at every second. When I grew up the last thing in the world I would have wanted was for my parents to call me. If I had a cell phone, I would have thrown it out of the window of my car while driving down the freeway, listening to Led Zeppelin, at eighty miles an hour. Only the Lord knows what I was doing at sixteen. It was easy to say, "Sorry, I'm late, Dad. I couldn't find a pay phone. I ran out of gas and had to walk to a gas station that was ten miles down the road in a blizzard." Then there's the whole cancer buzz. When my cell phone gets to close to my clock radio it starts to speak in tongues that only an exorcist could cure. I'm sure whatever causes that can't be good for you. What I wonder is what comes next? Phones can't get any smaller, unless you get corneal implants that cause you to see like you were looking through a microscope. I heard they are developing a chip that will hold one million songs on your phone. Has anyone done the math on how long it would take you to listen to every song? Not to mention, buy them. I think you get my point. When do we stop being robots and become human again?

Well . .  . got to go. Someone is ringing. I have a few texts to answer, need to post to Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, and just crushed someone at Scrabble