Can You Hear Me Now?
3/13/06
After dropping my cell phone in the sewer and cursing my purse which alternately loses the dang thing in the depths of its bowels or spits it out in various and sundry places, I bemoaned our dependence on modern technology while acknowledging that all these gadjets don't make our lives any simpler or easier to conduct. Then my flamenco teacher reminded us that our inter-personal communications are terrible no matter what medium we use because no one feels safe. That got my attention and I concurred. Why is it so hard to be, feel honest with people? How has the remove of telephonic devices altered how we speak to others? We know the internet's anonymity and instant satisfaction offers a new level of a variety of intimacies, whether they be intellectual, carnal, commercial, platonic. How different are these communcations from those we had around the camp fire, on the front porch, across teh dining or board room table? "Reach out and touch someone" was some phone companies ditty for while, now it's "Can you hear me now?" With all the noise in modern life, being heard seems a major challenge. People will IM each other at a crowded bar rather than yell above the din; sisters will feud in full fury ethernetically from half way around the world, re-hashing a myriad of old wrongs, igniting new ones in a way never possible through pen or ATT long distance charges. Loved ones spie on each other through global positioning hardware (soon to be available in Japan on cell phones). We Blackberry, Google, E-mail, telephone, telepath, fax and IM each other to death but do we really connect?
Yes, in a smile shared between 2 unknown moms in their mini-vans waiting at an intersection, in a couple of dollars pressed into the hand of a homeless person; in the soft caress of a child's neck at the end of a long day of bickering; in a joke shared between a food bank recipient and the health educator carting around her box of demo junk food; in the passing on of an article of interest between a husband and wife; in a smile of recognition between two strangers who will never meet again, but somehow know each other; in the hand on the back of a newly diagnosed cancer patient as she struggles to understand the news; in getting a phone call from someone just as you pen their name in the "To:" line; in the dream of an long lost boyfriend the night before receiving a letter from him. These interractions connect us in ways that a piece of electronica never will. It is with the eyes, the ears, the mouth, the skin and the mind that we relate as humans.
How sweet then, having given up my little Kyocera to a watery, detritus riddled grave, to find a kind Hispanic shop woman waiting next to my car after class to offer the use of a pair of ultra long tongs to retrieve my little mouth/ear piece. I thanked her for the favor with a smile and a joke, as she wrestled it out of the sewers clutch's then wiped off my baby and scolded it for its truancy. It chirped happily as I put it back in my purse and I went along my day, grateful for having had the chance, though a temporary loss, to connect with someone new.
After dropping my cell phone in the sewer and cursing my purse which alternately loses the dang thing in the depths of its bowels or spits it out in various and sundry places, I bemoaned our dependence on modern technology while acknowledging that all these gadjets don't make our lives any simpler or easier to conduct. Then my flamenco teacher reminded us that our inter-personal communications are terrible no matter what medium we use because no one feels safe. That got my attention and I concurred. Why is it so hard to be, feel honest with people? How has the remove of telephonic devices altered how we speak to others? We know the internet's anonymity and instant satisfaction offers a new level of a variety of intimacies, whether they be intellectual, carnal, commercial, platonic. How different are these communcations from those we had around the camp fire, on the front porch, across teh dining or board room table? "Reach out and touch someone" was some phone companies ditty for while, now it's "Can you hear me now?" With all the noise in modern life, being heard seems a major challenge. People will IM each other at a crowded bar rather than yell above the din; sisters will feud in full fury ethernetically from half way around the world, re-hashing a myriad of old wrongs, igniting new ones in a way never possible through pen or ATT long distance charges. Loved ones spie on each other through global positioning hardware (soon to be available in Japan on cell phones). We Blackberry, Google, E-mail, telephone, telepath, fax and IM each other to death but do we really connect?
Yes, in a smile shared between 2 unknown moms in their mini-vans waiting at an intersection, in a couple of dollars pressed into the hand of a homeless person; in the soft caress of a child's neck at the end of a long day of bickering; in a joke shared between a food bank recipient and the health educator carting around her box of demo junk food; in the passing on of an article of interest between a husband and wife; in a smile of recognition between two strangers who will never meet again, but somehow know each other; in the hand on the back of a newly diagnosed cancer patient as she struggles to understand the news; in getting a phone call from someone just as you pen their name in the "To:" line; in the dream of an long lost boyfriend the night before receiving a letter from him. These interractions connect us in ways that a piece of electronica never will. It is with the eyes, the ears, the mouth, the skin and the mind that we relate as humans.
How sweet then, having given up my little Kyocera to a watery, detritus riddled grave, to find a kind Hispanic shop woman waiting next to my car after class to offer the use of a pair of ultra long tongs to retrieve my little mouth/ear piece. I thanked her for the favor with a smile and a joke, as she wrestled it out of the sewers clutch's then wiped off my baby and scolded it for its truancy. It chirped happily as I put it back in my purse and I went along my day, grateful for having had the chance, though a temporary loss, to connect with someone new.
posted by Barbery at 2:55 PM
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