I couldn’t trace back the blog post where I read about this example, so I’ll relate it as best I can from memory. A writer’s agent was speaking at a writing conference with a panel of other agents to an audience of authors and aspiring hopefuls. One gentleman raised his hand to ask a question of the group. He started to ask his question when his cell phone went off. He took the call – but that’s not all (rhyming at 7am is a fluke, folks!). He proceeded to conduct the phone conversation, while standing, in front of the panel and the entire audience! So the agents moved on to another topic. When his call was finished, he interrupted them and asked them to repeat what they had said while he was on the phone call! He may have taken a second call during that time frame, but my memory is too fuzzy to be sure of that.
This lady’s blog readers, and I’m sure the audience too, were appalled. This is what led me to the topic so I figured you’d like to hear one of the more outrageous examples of our “Can ya hear me now?” world gone wild.
Along similar lines, there’s been discussion here in the US recently about whether or not we need more security cameras on our streets. This, as a result of the recent foiled terrorist attacks and the part that cameras play in leading to capture and arrest of the perpetrators. Arguements posed include a resistance to losing our “right to privacy” versus those on the other side who feel like privacy is a joke anyway so why not use the technology to capture the bad guys.
Bear with me here because this wraps back around to the whole cell phone issue…
Let’s agree that privacy has been eroding for a very long time. You can’t conduct any kind of business these days without releasing some sort of personal information. Google Earth cameras can zoom down from above and check out the hangnail on your big toe if anyone cared to see it.
That’s the price we pay for the advances in technology which we enjoy. We’re connected – all the time! Between laptops, blackberries, cell phones, GPS systems and your boss tracking you down to find out why you’re late from lunch…there are few of us that even want to shut the darned things down when we go on vacation. I see people all the time in my neighborhood who are running (not walking fast, mind you – they’re jogging!) and talking on their cell phone at the same time. Perhaps it’s an emergency situation…yes, that’s it! I’m sure it’s a fluke.
“Big brother” has been sleeping in our bed for a very long time and people who protest and say they have rights to privacy are fooling themselves. Even if you exclude yourself from every type of information tracking process known to man, there is still the informal network of people who talk. Remember Mayberry RFD and Aunt Bee? Think of your family and friends. Do people talk? Of course they do!
So regardless of whether we get more cameras at our intersections or not (I have no burning opinion or preference on this)…
Regardless of how much intrusion we already experience when it comes to personal privacy…
We DO have an obligation to one another to manage the way we communicate with one another. We DO have to make a commitment to put our energy into something that is (in my humble opinion) a little more of a pressing concern…and that is the erosion of standards in the way we BEHAVE towards one another. Cell phones and cameras are just an illustration….I’m searching for a word here and can’t find it…a distraction from the core issue. Five years from now it could be another type of gizmo or gadget we point to and say, “Ain’t that awful!”
If we get at the root of the issue, it’s all about manners and respect for one another. THAT’s the issue we have to tackle. It’s not the cell phones folks. It’s those of us who don’t seem to have the backbone to speak up and ask people, as I wrote yesterday, to turn it down/off or take it outside.
We don’t need to start a conflict and we don’t need to get snippy about it – just politely and calmly ask folks for what we want, need and deserve.
If you’re from the U.S., or friends from afar – let’s remember what tomorrow stands for – a celebration of freedom!
Happy July 4th! Laura (writing from Colorado)
