When phones act smarter than their owners<\/p>\n
We, as a society, have become overly dependent on our smart phones.\u00a0 They are more powerful than the early generation(s) of desktop computers we all used to own.\u00a0 They are faster, store more in memory, have more function than all but my last laptops.\u00a0 And as is human nature, we\u2019ve allowed these small devices to take over many areas of our lives; particularly decision making.<\/p>\n
At the Denver Airport, I watched countless people, (literally, I\u2019ve lost count), walk past 8 (EIGHT) signs, the smallest of which are 2 feet by 5 feet.\u00a0 Then they walk past the 5 flashing, scrolling, eye-catching signs on the train.\u00a0 They come up to me, and I\u2019m often standing directly under one of the signs, to ask me if \u201cthis train goes to Union Station.\u201d\u00a0 It is the same way at Union Station only that the destination is reversed.<\/p>\n
People have opted out of the thinking business.\u00a0 They have abdicated their course of action decisions to other people.\u00a0 And I blame the smart phone.\u00a0 So afraid to accept the answers provided by the little device, they ask overly obvious and idiotic questions to other people so as to affirm what they refuse to believe.<\/p>\n
But it goes much deeper than that.\u00a0 The phones have made people demand to be catered to or pampered by others, particularly those they see as being in the service industry.<\/p>\n
I had one woman ask me if I knew where (name the hotel) was when we got to Union Station.\u00a0 I told her that I had no idea; that I had never heard of the place.\u00a0 She stopped, and looking and sounding exasperated, said, \u201cWell, how am I supposed to get there, then?\u201d I said, \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u00a0 Maybe hire a personal assistant.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A man on the train tries to explain why he has no ticket to ride.<\/p>\n
Him: \u201cI thought I could buy the ticket on the train.\u201d<\/p>\n
Me: \u201cDid you buy your ticket from Logan to Denver when you sat down in seat 12D?\u201d<\/p>\n
Him: \u201cNo, but there weren\u2019t any signs where to buy a ticket.\u201d<\/p>\n
Me: \u201cYet you walked by 6 ticket machines, 8 signs on the platform, and 5 on the train itself.\u00a0 Then you look up from your phone to ask me if this train was going to Union Station.\u00a0 So signage isn\u2019t the issue here, is it?\u201d<\/p>\n
Then, while riding, almost everyone is nose deep into their phone.\u00a0 Most of them scrolling their FaceBook page(s), Instagram accounts, or Tinder swiping, further numbing their minds. And if not that, they have headphones in blocking themselves off from the world\u2014and my instructions.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve had people watch me check fare tickets the entire length of the train, and then look at me with an incredulous look on their face when I get to them as if they have no idea why I am standing before with a scanner\/counter.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t hear ANY of the five or six announcements made to get tickets prepared for inspection because they are absorbed into their own little bubble.\u00a0 And again, it is usually the smart phone.\u00a0 (I think I am the only person left on the planet who still uses an iPod.<\/p>\n
Another example:\u00a0 A man in his 20s approaches me and asks the usual idiotic question about if this is the train to Union Station.\u00a0 He has ear buds in his head and barely looks up at me as I answer.\u00a0 I notice in his hand he has a Region Discount ticket.\u00a0 It is a half priced ticket.\u00a0 I ask him the 4 qualifications for being eligible and he is not.\u00a0 I tell him to go back to the machines and simply buy another Region Discount ticket.\u00a0 (It would equal $9.00)\u00a0 He returns with a Regional ticket, having paid full price for it, and wasting the original $4.50 he spent.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t paying attention to my instructions as it was less important than whatever Buffy or Dirk had posted on FaceBook.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t going to get any better.\u00a0 The coming generations would prefer to not be engaged, thinking that others who \u201care working\u201d will simply cater to their needs and protect them from harm or misguided actions.\u00a0 They willingly pull back from having to think, reason, or decide.\u00a0 Having never had to do these things, what will they do when they MUST act, or choose, or decide?\u00a0 If I\u2019m around, I\u2019ll tell you what.\u00a0 They\u2019ll do exactly what I\u2019ll tell them to.\u00a0 Or I\u2019ll pummel them into submission.\u00a0 They can then post it on social media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When phones act smarter than their owners We, as a society, have become overly dependent on our smart phones.\u00a0 They are more powerful than the early generation(s) of desktop computers we all used to own.\u00a0 They are faster, store more in memory, have more function than all but my last laptops.\u00a0 And as is human […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/writeofcenter.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/writeofcenter.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/writeofcenter.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writeofcenter.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writeofcenter.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=398"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/writeofcenter.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":399,"href":"https:\/\/writeofcenter.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398\/revisions\/399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/writeofcenter.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writeofcenter.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writeofcenter.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}