Editor,
Ever hear someone loudly call out, "Hey," behind you for no apparent reason? You turn around to see what all the noise is about, only to discover that the person is alone and can only be talking to his or herself. Your initial impression is that this person must be cracked.
Wait - you then notice their hand cupped to their ear and the tiny antenna sticking up as if it were an extension of the person's head. You suddenly realize that the obnoxious conversation taking place behind you is being transmitted over a cell phone.
What will these clever marketing pundits think of next? Create a nifty enough gadget, market it well and within 10 years of its inception, it will be out creating its own need among the masses hungry for the latest, the smallest, the fastest and lining your pockets.
Technology, we say, is our way of stepping forward. Since we first began to alter our environment, we up-right standing, opposable-thumbed creatures have been making improvements right and left.
But, how often do we stop to think what has been lost? In our need for convenience, we have isolated ourselves from one another as well as ourselves. In our need to stay connected, we have paradoxically lost touch with one another. When half of the people around us feel the need for any form of instantaneous connection, however insipid, we have lost our sense of community.
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Our isolation and our need for instant gratification has pushed us to our addiction in this surrogate companion, this flashing, beeping interruption of the world around and within us. Life passes by in a blur; we no longer take time to notice a cloud, a tree, a face. Uncomfortable thinking our own thoughts, we must always have the validation of another.
To those who would label me a technophobe and a hopeless atavist, I would answer that I am guilty to both charges. However, I am in good company, joining Auden in decrying the "blatherers about the new."
What, you may be wondering, are we to do about this worrying phenomenon? Leave your phone at home and go for a walk. Smile at someone. Grimace at someone. Anything, just interact. These facile suggestions may seem obvious; however, I feel the need to make them just the same.
Perhaps we could have a national holiday - No Cell Phone Day. Imagine the possibilities - we might actually begin to form some sort of connection between ourselves and the world again.
Justin Parks
UNM English student
