Sunday morning I headed out to the local Panera for coffee-flavored work. Heading to my usual table I discovered a good friend had beat me to it - I started to say hello, then noticed her plugged into the iPod. I decided to perform an experiment. Sitting down at the table behind her, I decided to see how long it would take her to detach from the iPod and notice me (or anything). But then The Wife came around the other way with our coffee, and walked right in front of her. Certainly she spotted her, and I thought no more about it - until an hour later, when Leah turned around and jerked in surprise as she noticed us for the first time.
I think you see where I'm going here.
If someone made a movie where 85% of people were plugged into some device, totally unaware of their surroundings, everyone who watched would be horrified by such a dystopian future (though you might still take the blue pill). But Steve Jobs and Co. have slowly zombified America, and everyone's more worried about the features/style/price of the new iPhone than the fact that sounds of conversation have drained from every street, waiting line, and tram station. I used to ride the bus to campus every day, and it was bloody creepy - perfect rows of filled seats, everyone looking at their shoes, wires running into their ears...I had to either stop riding or go buy a shotgun. Just in case.
Seriously, though - I don't know if their is some strange, modern desire to remove ourselves from the world around us, or if it's just apathy induced by all the semi-satisfying artificial contact we're inundated with. What I am sure of, however, is that this is not a good point in human history for impersonalization and disconnection. Darfur, Somalia, nuclear proliferation, insane dilettante dictators testing ballistic missles...not to mention the economic mess - like unemployment and thousands of nearly unemployable retirees forced back into SlaveMart as unbridled capitalism robs their savings and pensions. I suppose riding the iPod mothership to a mass exodus from personal involvement should come as no surprise....But the impetus to confront such problems is exponentially higher when confronted by a human factor like an 80 year old grandmother talking to you on her bus ride to inspect receipts at walmart, rather than data from an NPR podcast. Meanwhile, millions of people literally walk around with cotton stuffed in their ears...
Music is great. Just take the headphones off and enjoy it with someone. If for no other reason -I'm pretty sure the Ultimate Bad Thing that results from generalized civil apathy is the Zombie Apocalypse. And with only a sawed-off shotty between me and the brain-eaters, you shoe-staring iPod junkies don't want me getting confused.
This is good, David. And I don't mean to detract from your intention, but I don't fully agree (not that you need me to). So, can I chip in a couple cents?
ReplyDeleteMy initial reaction was to point out that music sometimes just sounds better through headphones, but this does nothing to counter your point. For one, chances are that anyone interested in using headphones to enhance their appreciation isn't going to do so by using "earbuds" or by listening to mp3s.
My second reaction was to your claim that "that this is not a good point in human history for impersonalization and disconnection." Now, given the ugliness in the world that you mention, music does make for a nice retreat; but using an iPod doesn't necessarily mean that a person is always disconnected all of the time. Chances are the people you mention are living lives full of interpersonal and social connections in and out of the "real" world. Virtual communities, for example, are no less valid or important because they are immaterial or technologically mediated. And involvement in virtual communities can be as potentially selfless and humanitarian as helping the granny with the Wal-Mart receipt.
But, in the end, my objection was more personal and probably further evidence of what you're getting at. When I go to the coffee shop to do some work, I nearly always put the earbuds in, although I don't always turn the iPod on. Having a body in public doesn't mean I should have to use it to be nice to you or anyone else. Frankly, I've got work to do, and I'll be much more productive if I get myself out of the apartment, so long as I don't have people sitting down for a chat about the weather.
Now, don't get me wrong. Chatting about the weather essentially boils down to two or more people saying to each other "This is the way the world is as I see it. Do you see it this way too? Aren't we the same? Don't we experience this together? The same way?" And that's a beautiful thing.
But, beyond providing the excuse to close myself off from distraction, the iPod is, I think, the aesthetic manifestation of something very existential. We don't connect. We don't understand each other. We're fundamentally alone to begin with. Yes, we need each other for survival. And, yes, we need to connect socially, even if it means being fundamentally misunderstood. But now we have the opportunity to be in a social space, to aesthetically display our fundamental autonomy, and to have greater choice when and with whom we interact.
I like it.
Also, my pop-culture obsessions: 1) Vampires (which are like the ninjas of the undead, I think. Living in the land of Romero does come with some pressure to appreciate the brain-eaters, but...nope...vampires) and 2) records. Do records count? I do love them.
ReplyDeleteSeger said it - For everything, there is a season. I certainly spend enough time zoned out at coffee shops, with or without headphones on. But I'm also not afraid to say - hey, I'm busy. I'm also not afraid to say - hey, you smell funny and I really think that shirt makes you look like a tool. But that's why I'm a special person.
ReplyDeleteBuried under my inabillity to keep a serious line for five minutes at a time and the rush to get something written down, i prolly didn't make my point terribly clear. Two points, actually - I'm disturbed by everyone's use of iPod's as barrier to protect themselves from accidental connection with another human being *even when they have no reason not to*, such as on the bus or walking down the street. Second, seeing a bus or room full of people all wired into some strange little device IS JUST FREAKIN' CREEPY. I mean, dude.
I have to totally disagree with that existential life-as-performance-art bit, though. We aren't fundamentally alone - we're fundamentally connected. I thought you were a Buddhist, eh? The modern social condition *does* try to keep us all as far apart and alone as possible (happy people don't buy stuff), but that's a symptom, not a natural state as far as I'm concerned. The acadimicized justifying is a bit troubling, man. (Justusifying. Heh.)
Ooh, and records are awesome. Definate count. Goth kids ruined vampires for me, though.