Please darken your cell phones
Argghhhh! Kids these days! Yes, I know, I'm still living in the technological Dark Ages and have become an obsolete old lady who still remembers the good old days when you went out to the movies and people trying to reach you had to wait till you got home and listened to your answering-machine messages, and only emergency responders needed pagers. (I'm even old enough to remember when answering machines seemed like a passing fad; I was one of those luddites who never left a message when I got one because I hated "talking to a machine"!) But please tell me I'm not the only person who's sick of this phenomenon of people texting everywhere they go.
I was recently shocked to find out that some ridiculous percentage of people have admitted to texting while driving--how can you possibly watch the road and drive at the same time? Well, obviously you can't since they're passing a law against it in my state ever since five local teens were killed in a head-on crash with an 18-wheeler because the driver swerved into the oncoming lane while texting. (This may well explain why I've been in so many accidents in just the last couple of years that I've developed a phobia of driving.) I mean, can't people go two lousy hours anymore without dividing their attention between what they're actually doing and holding superficial conversations with other friends? It's not only dangerous, but it's just plain rude. Not to mention the repetitive-motion injury that's going to catch up with them in a few years. (I still can't believe the news story that parents are upset that their kids aren't allowed to use cell phones in school to call them between classes--and text their friends instead of paying attention to the teacher. How pathetically wimpy and codependent is our society becoming? "Back in my day," before there were cell phones--when "Computers" was a senior-year elective course--we walked to school--a good mile each way--without any supervision while our parents worked, or, during the summer, we went outside to play with the neighbor kids--while our parents trusted us to be home in time for dinner, and we were. Of course, there were serial killers and child molesters back then too--but we were taught common-sense survival skills, like not talking to strangers, staying in groups, screaming "fire" if someone came after you, avoiding dangerous places ... Today's kids, who are forbidden from getting off a school bus unless there's a parent or legal guardian present to escort them 20 feet into the house, must be amazed that any of us lived to tell the tale!)
Why am I suddenly going off about this? Because I just got back from the movies, and it seems like now that theatre owners have finally convinced inconsiderate people to silence their cell phones during the movies, these clods have found a new way to distract everyone around them. Starting in the last year or so, you can't see a film in a nice, dark theatre anymore without some idiot in front of you texting their buddy, totally indifferent to the bright light it gives off, competing with the image up on the screen. It was just getting to the climax of The Bucket List tonight when the moron in front of us started his text conversation, and I'm sure he has no idea how the movie ended (and didn't care whether anybody else did) because he was still texting when it finished. If only I hadn't been trying so hard to focus on the movie, I'd have started reading his text conversation out loud to the whole theatre. It was so tempting! ('Course, then I'd have been the one to get thrown out for talking.) At this rate, I may just give up going out to the movies entirely. I mean, this is why God gave us giant flat-screen TVs and cable, right?
Yes, as demonstrated, I've grown so obsolete I think presidential candidates should be elected based on more than slick campaign slogans and fan videos. Hey! What're those kids doing near my lawn?! Gotta go ... :P
cross-posted to my MySpace blog
I was recently shocked to find out that some ridiculous percentage of people have admitted to texting while driving--how can you possibly watch the road and drive at the same time? Well, obviously you can't since they're passing a law against it in my state ever since five local teens were killed in a head-on crash with an 18-wheeler because the driver swerved into the oncoming lane while texting. (This may well explain why I've been in so many accidents in just the last couple of years that I've developed a phobia of driving.) I mean, can't people go two lousy hours anymore without dividing their attention between what they're actually doing and holding superficial conversations with other friends? It's not only dangerous, but it's just plain rude. Not to mention the repetitive-motion injury that's going to catch up with them in a few years. (I still can't believe the news story that parents are upset that their kids aren't allowed to use cell phones in school to call them between classes--and text their friends instead of paying attention to the teacher. How pathetically wimpy and codependent is our society becoming? "Back in my day," before there were cell phones--when "Computers" was a senior-year elective course--we walked to school--a good mile each way--without any supervision while our parents worked, or, during the summer, we went outside to play with the neighbor kids--while our parents trusted us to be home in time for dinner, and we were. Of course, there were serial killers and child molesters back then too--but we were taught common-sense survival skills, like not talking to strangers, staying in groups, screaming "fire" if someone came after you, avoiding dangerous places ... Today's kids, who are forbidden from getting off a school bus unless there's a parent or legal guardian present to escort them 20 feet into the house, must be amazed that any of us lived to tell the tale!)
Why am I suddenly going off about this? Because I just got back from the movies, and it seems like now that theatre owners have finally convinced inconsiderate people to silence their cell phones during the movies, these clods have found a new way to distract everyone around them. Starting in the last year or so, you can't see a film in a nice, dark theatre anymore without some idiot in front of you texting their buddy, totally indifferent to the bright light it gives off, competing with the image up on the screen. It was just getting to the climax of The Bucket List tonight when the moron in front of us started his text conversation, and I'm sure he has no idea how the movie ended (and didn't care whether anybody else did) because he was still texting when it finished. If only I hadn't been trying so hard to focus on the movie, I'd have started reading his text conversation out loud to the whole theatre. It was so tempting! ('Course, then I'd have been the one to get thrown out for talking.) At this rate, I may just give up going out to the movies entirely. I mean, this is why God gave us giant flat-screen TVs and cable, right?
Yes, as demonstrated, I've grown so obsolete I think presidential candidates should be elected based on more than slick campaign slogans and fan videos. Hey! What're those kids doing near my lawn?! Gotta go ... :P
cross-posted to my MySpace blog