10.14.12
CID (Chronic Inattention Deficit)
For lack of a better term, I’ve coined my own phrase for what I see as a pestilential phenomenon that pervades our world today: Chronic Inattention Deficit.
Basically, I have a problem with people being excessively attached to their iPhones/Blackberries/music players or what not. Although I have matured somewhat in recent years, having begun to lighten up and understand that what other people choose to do—as long as it does not bring harm to other people—is not and should not really be my concern, I feel that I do need to weigh in on this trend (hence my last post).
Honestly, when I go to a restaurant, I really shouldn’t care if the two girls sitting at the table next to ours both have their heads down and are fiddling with their iPhones while they are waiting for their order. I shouldn’t care that they aren’t having a conversation of any genuine substance, making eye contact, or in short simply focusing on each other.
However, this trend bothers me because—and the reason is a little surprising to me because I’ve never been one to follow the herd—I feel increasingly alienated from the changes in social behavior that I see occurring around me. I realize how different I am becoming from the majority.
I like technology just as much as the next person, but I increasingly feel that I’m a Neo-Luddite, a black sheep, the odd guy on the block, the old man on the hill who lives alone and looks at you funny as he walks down the street on his way to the corner store. I don’t Tweet, I don’t do Facebook, and I don’t have a cell phone (never mind a smart phone). While I welcome any technology when I see it as bringing a net benefit to our lives, I don’t know, or can’t say at this point, that being joined at the hip to one’s iPhone is a good thing.
You see, despite all the advancements in technology, our mammalian brains are still very much the products of millions of years of slow but steady evolution. Our brains are still wired for the African savannah. I know what it’s like when I’m typing on the computer and trying to talk to my someone in the room at the same time—it flat out doesn’t work. I can’t concentrate properly on what I’m doing on the PC, nor can I make proper eye contact or have a decent, connected, continuous, thoughtful conversation with my human interlocutor.* When I walk home from work and saunter across the Granville St. Bridge, I want to be in the here-and-now and take in all the richness of experience each moment has to offer: the hue and color of the sky, the patterns of the clouds, the wind in my hair, the pitter-patter of rain on my head, the swirling of the water below. I feel that having one’s face in one’s iPhone detracts from the richness of life and precludes one’s savoring the experience of the moment.
I get flak from some people for not having a cell phone. And admittedly, once a month or so, a situation crops up where it would be great to have a mobile phone. For instance, when I’ve made a lunch date with my wife and I’m running late.
To reiterate, I’m not against change per se, but I need to be convinced of the benefits of the change. I can’t see how Tweeting what you ate for breakfast or just bought at the store brings an improvement to your life. I read once somewhere that all this constant interaction on the Web is akin to drip-feeding your ego (you want recognition, you want a response, you want to feel you are important), and that analysis seems pretty dead on to me. I remember back when I used MSN Messenger in 2002, how proud I was to have 100 “friends” (my list of contacts, most of whom I no longer speak to today).
I read recently that a significant percentage of the younger generation today feels more comfortable blogging, Facebooking, Tweeting, or texting than having a real, sit down, face-to-face conversation. Given that we are still mammalian and still thrive on real, interpersonal connections, this development is, at the very least, eyebrow-raising. If the constant connection with our iPhones et al is impairing our social communication, then why aren’t more people concerned? Why do I feel so alone as a cell phone/smart phone/iPad abstainer?
* Side note: Women are, by the way, supposed to be better at multitasking, but I have issues with this point of view . Women’s minds do indeed appear to flit more frequently from topic to topic or situation to situation, but my experience has been that they are not able to handle each individual situation with any greater degree of competence. Rather, they just have the ability to shift focus rapidly. I have yet to be convinced that they perform better at the various tasks.
