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Jul. 21st, 2016 07:20 amI had an interesting revelation this morning that ended in some advice I want to share with all of you. If someone sees you working on your computer and gets on your case about the digital age, you can tell them "You're just mad you can't see what I'm doing."
What this came from was returning early-morning from my run and switching my laptop on, then going into the other room to get out of my running clothes. When I came back I saw the blue glow of the laptop lighting up the couch and the wall behind it, and it gave me a weird moment of nostalgia for riding around in a car after dark as a kid, seeing blue glows on the walls through the windows of other houses (or blue glows on the drapes) which meant you knew someone was watching TV.
It occurred to me that there are two major differences between television, which dominated culture from the mid-50s through the late-90s, and computers, which have dominated culture from the early 2000s to the present, particularly in terms of entertainment in the last ten years. One difference of course is that computers are far more interactive, and you can connect to other people through them. No denying. But, and I think for people who grew up without the internet this is more evident, the other difference is that when you watch TV on a TV, anyone passing by can see what you're watching. When you watch TV on a laptop -- or read a book on a tablet, or listen to a podcast or play a game on your phone -- nobody else can see what you're up to without being REALLY OBVIOUS that that's what they're doing.
And the kind of person who generally gets all twisted up about people using technology in public is the kind of person who either isn't capable of grasping that it's interactive, or has already decided to ignore that. So when someone decides to start up a conversation about how soulless and isolated people are by their technology, remember that the odds are pretty good they're partly upset because they can't see (and perhaps more importantly judge) what you're doing.
So if someone tries to get into with you about it, I think it's a pretty great riposte: "You're just mad you can't see what I'm doing."
(Obviously be safe and don't antagonize someone seriously aggressive or dangerous. But if you're getting a harrumphing senior citizen next to you on the bus...)
What this came from was returning early-morning from my run and switching my laptop on, then going into the other room to get out of my running clothes. When I came back I saw the blue glow of the laptop lighting up the couch and the wall behind it, and it gave me a weird moment of nostalgia for riding around in a car after dark as a kid, seeing blue glows on the walls through the windows of other houses (or blue glows on the drapes) which meant you knew someone was watching TV.
It occurred to me that there are two major differences between television, which dominated culture from the mid-50s through the late-90s, and computers, which have dominated culture from the early 2000s to the present, particularly in terms of entertainment in the last ten years. One difference of course is that computers are far more interactive, and you can connect to other people through them. No denying. But, and I think for people who grew up without the internet this is more evident, the other difference is that when you watch TV on a TV, anyone passing by can see what you're watching. When you watch TV on a laptop -- or read a book on a tablet, or listen to a podcast or play a game on your phone -- nobody else can see what you're up to without being REALLY OBVIOUS that that's what they're doing.
And the kind of person who generally gets all twisted up about people using technology in public is the kind of person who either isn't capable of grasping that it's interactive, or has already decided to ignore that. So when someone decides to start up a conversation about how soulless and isolated people are by their technology, remember that the odds are pretty good they're partly upset because they can't see (and perhaps more importantly judge) what you're doing.
So if someone tries to get into with you about it, I think it's a pretty great riposte: "You're just mad you can't see what I'm doing."
(Obviously be safe and don't antagonize someone seriously aggressive or dangerous. But if you're getting a harrumphing senior citizen next to you on the bus...)
