From: poly@ningal.eanna.net   
      
   "Hello, hello, baby;   
   You called, I can't hear a thing.   
   I have got no service   
   in the club, you see, see...   
   Wha-Wha-What did you say?   
   Oh, you're breaking up on me...   
   Sorry, I cannot hear you,   
   I'm kinda busy."   
      
      
   Vignette 1.   
      
   Sourcerer and I lived in such a remote location for such a long time   
   that we became extremely sensitive to the digital hyper-consumer culture   
   that really seemed to take off in the mid-2000's. And I started noticing   
   some odd behaviour when I went back east on business trips. People were   
   not just carrying their cell phones, they were fondling them. If they   
   weren't actually talking or texting, they were nervously tossing it back   
   and forth in their hands, or just fiddling with it - playing with   
   settings, playing games, whatever. Oblivious to their surroundings.   
      
      
   "Sorry, I cannot hear you, I'm kinda busy."   
      
      
   Vignette 2.   
      
   I sat alone at a table in a busy restaurant in downtown Chicago,   
   watching Mixed Martial Arts fighting on the big screens above the bar. I   
   had my own cell phone, but it was in my purse. As I sat there I started   
   to notice what was going on at the tables around me. People were sitting   
   there together, and every one of them was glued to the little glowing   
   screen in their hands. Some were texting, some were looking at   
   websietes, but none of them were paying any real attention to the people   
   around them. There were not there. They were texting friends elsewhere -   
   I figured that the people they were with would not get their attention   
   unless they texted across the table.   
      
   And once they got to the party they'd been texting, would they really be   
   there, I wondered? Or would they just start texting people not at the   
   party?   
      
      
   "Just a second,   
   it's my favorite song they're gonna play   
   And I cannot text you with   
   a drink in my hand, eh...   
   You shoulda made some plans with me,   
   you knew that I was free.   
   And now you won't stop calling me;   
   I'm kinda busy.   
      
   "Stop callin', stop callin',   
   I don't wanna think anymore!   
   I left my head and my heart on the dance floor.   
   Stop callin', stop callin',   
   I don't wanna talk anymore!   
   I left my head and my heart on the dance floor."   
      
      
   Vignette 3.   
      
   After we moved back to Pittsburgh in early 2008, and I started going to   
   more on-site client meetings, and I noticed an increase in people coming   
   to project meetings with laptops and/or smart phones, and playing with   
   them the whole time. We have some meetings with a dozen people sitting   
   together at the same table in order to make complex decisions that will   
   affect the project and the future of the company, and nobody is paying   
   any attention except the consultants. The employees' bodies are at the   
   table, but their minds are far far away. When they're called on by the   
   project manager to give an opinion or answer a question, all they can   
   say is: "I'm sorry, I wan't really listing. What was the question   
   again?"   
      
   And they wonder why their projects costs spiral out of control!   
      
      
   "Can call all you want,   
   but there's no one home,   
   and you're not gonna reach my telephone!   
   Out in the club,   
   and I'm sippin' that bub,   
   and you're not gonna reach my telephone!"   
      
      
   Vignette 4.   
      
   I was driving a rental car in Washington DC evening rush hour a few   
   months ago, with a passenger who was totally into his iPhone. He kept   
   trying to show me that "traffic is supposed to be *moving* here!" by   
   holding up the phone with all its green lines to prove it to me. I was   
   too busy braking to avoid slamming into the stopped cars in front of me   
   to look. He was really offended that the real life circumstances were   
   not conforming to what his phone said they were, and he hept trying to   
   prove that the phone was right. "This has to clear up in a minute!" It   
   didn't. Good thing he wasn't driving.   
      
      
   "Boy, the way you blowin' up my phone   
   won't make me leave no faster.   
   Put my coat on faster,   
   leave my girls no faster.   
   I shoulda left my phone at home,   
   'cause this is a disaster!   
   Callin' like a collector -   
   sorry, I cannot answer!   
      
   "Not that I don't like you,   
   I'm just at a party.   
   And I am sick and tired   
   of my phone r-ringing.   
   Sometimes I feel like   
   I live in Grand Central Station.   
   Tonight I'm not takin' no calls,   
   'cause I'll be dancin'.   
      
   "'Cause I'll be dancin'   
   'Cause I'll be dancin'   
   Tonight I'm not takin' no calls,   
   'cause I'll be dancin'!   
      
   "Stop callin', stop callin',   
   I don't wanna think anymore!   
   I left my head and my heart on the dance floor.   
   Stop callin', stop callin',   
   I don't wanna talk anymore!   
   I left my head and my heart on the dance floor."   
      
      
   To me, distributed consciousness looks like people abandoning their   
   bodies while their attention is focused on the ecstasy of communication   
   -- the disembodied voices talking into their ear or the text   
   and flickering images held between their thumbs. I'm old enough to   
   remember when people made fun of this effect in people watching   
   television. I also remember the controversy when transistor radios came   
   out, and a few years later the Walkman: the concern was that people were   
   cutting themselves off from their surroundings.   
      
   It was valid but ignored.   
      
   Now states are starting to legislate against using a cell phone other   
   other device while driving, but what about the rest of the time? How   
   much of your mortality are you spending separated from your body?   
      
   I've been accused of being a neo-luddite, a contrarian, old-fashioned,   
   willfully stubborn, and worse because I don't have a smart phone.   
   Because I leave my cell phone turned off or in the car when I'm taking a   
   walk through the park. Because I don't check my email as it comes in.   
   Because I'm trying to get away from multi-tasking and focus on one thing   
   at a time.   
      
   I remain unmoved.   
      
   When we lived in the desert I always carried my cell phone with me when   
   I went out hiking alone or with Sourcerer, but I always distrusted it. I   
   noticed that having it with me changed my behavior, and the way the   
   hiking felt: if I wasn't vigilant it made me careless. That was a good   
   lesson and I'm grateful I never had to learn it the hard way. Sourcerer   
   and I had a rule while hiking: stop walking in order to look around.   
      
   It was important to keep your attention focused on your feet and the   
   terrain in front of you. A moment's loss of attention could easily   
   result in serious injury or death.   
      
      
   "I'm busy!   
   Stop telephonin' me!   
      
   -- Lyrics from "Telephone" by Lady Gaga, from "The Fame Monster" album   
      
      
   Over the past few months we've started noticing articles about people   
   dropping out of social networking in order to reclaim their lives, and a   
   general note of "rejection of the digital". The recent hit, "Telephone",   
   by Lady Gaga, really caught my attention because it offers a hint from   
   the same timeframe that maybe the shine is starting to wear off the   
   novelty of cell phones and all the rest of it.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)