diss connect

i remember when the sony walkman was introduced and quickly public life became an experience of encountering people who might have been looking you straight in eye but there was no otherwise interaction because they were plugged into headphones listening to music. i remember writing about how in some ways this was a bit of a human violation because it was now harder to make connection with people…they were in their own world.

and we evolved into bluetooth technology whereby on more than frequent occasions one can be walking in public and someone will say something outloud, and you can find yourself responding as if to a question that someone has posed to you only to discover they are talking with someone many miles, perhaps even countries away, speaking through the headset attached to their ear.

it’s even harder to make contact with someone driving when you notice they are texting while driving.

i feel the disconnection and can blame the advances of technology.

and then i realize i can stride down the hallways of my workplace, intently focused upon some project or obstacle to resolve or some deadline to meet or some overly prioritized deadline, and not make eye contact or verbal contact or human connection with the very people at work i seek to value and respect.