Tubes & Tuning

These days we're always connected. Email, voice mail, cell phones. Hands free headsets, even wireless headsets, wireless internet access, wireless printer connections.

I remember - probably about 8 years ago now - how I would stare at people talking animatedly to themselves while driving or in the airport. They appeared to be talking to themselves, lunatics in public. That's when headsets for cell phones were new, and a double take was required to look for that small wire trailing from their pocket into one ear. Nowadays I don't even blink when loud talkers are engrossed in a one-side conversation in public; I assume they're on their cell rather than potentially bonkers.

Living in STL where public transit is not used by the average person, when riding the tube in London I couldn't help but notice how text messaging and listening to iPods/MP3s has replaced the past methods of avoiding eye contact. Still there, but less common, are the newspaper/magazine/book readers and the cell phone talkers. Text messaging via cell is much more discreet. Of course, the vacant looks are still there, they're just even further tuned out to their fellow travelers - communicating silently with friends via text messaging or listening to music through small headphones/ear buds. Tuned out and distanced - "don't talk to strangers" - has been further advanced by technology. I even did the same - listening to my iPod as I changed terminals at O'Hare, waited at baggage claim, took a bus then the tube to my friend's flat in London.

In addition to my observations on the London underground, I found that my friends had changed with the accessibility of technology as well. When they lived in San Francisco their one television was stored in a closet. It had broken and rather than repairing or replacing it, it was relegated to a closet, the bathroom closet at that. So for the past few years when I visited, there was never a tv. I found that I didn't miss it, and actually appreciated the boob tube's absence from their home. Now, living in a fully furnished flat in London, they have a tv again. J, who was anti-tv in San Francisco, has once again found a soft spot for the boob tube, the square headed babysitter. On Sunday night we picked up Chinese take out to be home in time to watch the next episode of the BBC series, Planet Earth. It was a fascinating, National Geographic-esque show. It just struck me as rather amusing - and how very human - it is to fall into watching the tube. After that show, we flipped channels and landed on a J-Lo movie. Former anti-tv J planned to work on his laptop while watching the movie. His laptop remained on his lap, the document open and on the computer screen, but the only activity was to move the mouse every time the screen saver popped on. Not a lick of work was done as he seemed captivated by the flick. He stayed up an hour later to finish his work project after the formulaic flick ended.

I myself, many a time, have been sucked into bad tv shows, movies, etc. as a way to tune out. I admit I can be a tv junkie and I'm not always proud of it. I was just amused to see J fall into the habit as well. It's very human. It just was a little surprising to see J get tuned into tvland so completely at times.

Granted J & R's tv watching is much less than the average person, which I admire. Nighttime was the only time the tv was on. In the morning a cd played and often in the afternoons and some evenings if we ate at home it was music, not the tv, that was on.