media rant...

I'm over it.

I'm not alone. Everyone feels frustrated with the poor phone behavior in this foolish, media-connected society. We are all at fault. We don't remember what it was like to sit quietly at a cafe, be alone, read a paper or a book, or talk to a stranger without "it." We don't have moments of utter solitude anymore because we have "it" right in the palm of our hand. If we aren't talking to a friend, we are doing business simultaneously with it, playing games, working on blogs, or using hundreds of apps doing God knows what.

Then, there are phone manners, or lack thereof. Mostly... the latter. It is clear that society has been transformed into a faceless, featureless, facsimile of a cultured life that is going, going... by....gone.

Forever lost.

Oh, it's exhilarating to be this connected... at first. Then... you wake up from chronic eyestrain, chores undone, books unread, canvases unpainted, treadmill turned off, piano unplayed and time has simply... disappeared. I used to think TV was a waste of time until the internet came on the scene. I believe that certain OCD types (like myself) are susceptible to misuse where other normal people aren't so inclined. But just like junk-food, there is a plethora of media gluttony that has ruined the creativity and the social skills for a good portion of our population.

I was with a friend for an entire week who found it impossible to sit at lunch, drive in a car, or shop with me without checking out her phone every four minutes. The addiction is palpable and sucks in most unsuspecting users. After all, that little handheld piece of plastic and lead has every friend and family member attached to it. It has Match.com love prospects and Nasdaq info. It owns up-to-date opinions of twitter-ers and news of the hour from all over the world. It is an indispensable nightmare that we can't live without. Good App Almighty.

I don't have the answer, but I do know that the technology is going faster than we are humanly prepared to cope. We cannot keep up with its lack of societal propriety and so, we are turning into oversexed, over-informed, uncultured lunatics with zero manners or privacy. It's quite insane.

Oh... these darn kids today.