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Act II, Scene 3, in Which an Aging Game Show Host Rails Against Modernity
I was watching the 1982 film Tootsie the other day when I was struck by the iconic scene in which Dustin Hoffman’s title character makes his first appearance as a “woman” walking down the streets of Manhattan. There was something odd about the scene, and I had to look at it several times before I figured out what it was. It turns out the people around Hoffman were interacting with each other and their surroundings. They were talking to each other, admiring the skyscrapers, watching for traffic and taking in the various sights and sounds of a beautiful New York City day. What they weren’t doing was texting, listening to music, talking into a phone, or checking their email.
I know it was over 30 years ago, and life is always changing, but everything looked so—I don’t know—alive, I guess. There wasn’t that zombie-esque atmosphere where what’s happening in the real, living world takes a back seat to the allure of high-tech devices and disembodied voices. I always worry about wading into the “things were better back then” waters, because I know it’s just a small step away from chasing kids off my lawn, and I’m also aware that there are some advantages to being “connected.” So, is it just approaching geezerhood that made me look so longingly at that scene?
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Misthiocracy–I agree totally. It wasn’t better then, not really, not most of the time. Things were more frequently boring, and my fellow passengers on mass transit were noisier and more impatient while waiting. I missed my family and lost track of too many old friends, few of whom were willing to bother to respond to my thoughtful and witty correspondence.
I say embrace the new technology! Especially because we have no real choice not to do so.
People feared the printing press too, and look how far that brought us.
We do have choices. Since I am usually in my office on workdays, I have been able to get away with living without a cellphone. The one I own is something I only carry when traveling, which is a rare occurrence.
Whenever I tell people that I don’t carry a cellphone, they always tell me how they wish they could get away with that.
Allow me to be the very first person to not make that reply upon hearing the news that you don’t carry a cell phone. As such, you can no longer say that you “always” get that reply.
;-)
Yes, games CAN be good for the brain. And I enjoy them myself from time to time, but…..lets see how do I say this nicely…..I don’t get the sense that a great many of the brains I see staring into their phones on the train are really benefitting in any meaningful way from the activities they are engaged in. Looks more like soma to me.
If you think a normal city street is bad you should check out the hordes of students at a major college campus. They will walk out in front of traffic, fall off walkways, I had some try to walk BETWEEN a huge excavator and the tandem dump truck it was loading…….right under the boom of the machine! Never looked up…they just dont. I think they have an app that marks their path to walk on the screen so they can continually text without any interaction with the outside world.
As Ronald Reagan would say (I’m sure). Peter, I-phones are for pinko hippies. Get a Galaxy! First an i-phone, next you will be doing yoga with Rob.
I say get what you need. If the Jitterbug is all you need then getting a smart phone is just unnecessarily complex. The smart phone is great for me because it cuts down on the amount of crap I have to carry with me. I was mainly just trying to rip on i-phone users….they are very sensitive to criticism about their apple status devices. hehehe
My dad is a retired pulmonary doc. He resisted getting a cell phone until he was close if not past retirement. He used to tell me that his time in the car going from one hospital to another was the only peace he had in the day and didn’t want to spend it on the phone. He had a pager, and if someone paged him they could wait until he reached the hospital. :-)
I saw students doing that stuff when I was on campus in the early 80s, long before they had cell phones. College students tend to be clueless/oblivious.
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