There are a couple of oddball ways in which I’m really falling behind the curve. Like having to figure out where I’m meeting someone before I leave the house, rather than pinging Zeno-like calls back and forth with the person I’m meeting while we narrow in on the same location. Or like not finding out about the interesting television shows until a few years after they’ve been canceled, or jumped the shark, or both. Or like feeling literal, physical discomfort when I’m exposed to the unmistakable sound of Newscaster for more than a few minutes. I only notice these gaps on the, um, increasingly rare occasions when I, er, leave the house, so am exposed to things like cellphones. Or televisions that are connected to more than a Netflix subscription. Most of the time these gaps feel like positive things — I don’t need a cell phone, 99% of the time. I don’t like watching TV as it’s broadcast: there are those pesky ads, and you can’t binge on a whole season’s worth over the course of a weekend. And I definitely, definitely don’t need to be exposed to the TV news. This whole country would be a lot saner if none of us were, I think. But it means that a short business trip with a disposable cellphone and a TV in my hotel room leaves me really, really discombobulated; it’s like I’m visiting a foreign country. A foreign country in which my pants pocket keeps vibrating at unpredictable intervals. Anyway, that’s not really what I was talking about. Which was this: every time I’ve flipped through the channels in my hotel room this weekend, or walked past one in an airport, which has been an uncommon lot of flipping and walking-past-of, I’ve been shown one of three things: …all accompanied by that steady stream of breathless, intense Newscaster Voice, which seems to sound the same whether it’s announcing the invasion of a city or a little old lady getting punched in the face. Minor variations on the above available from — I counted — nine different news channels, apparently at all hours of the day or night. Was this just a weird weekend, during which nothing real happened, but some inconsequential things happened to have some lurid footage? Or is this normal? Do you get used to it after a while? I keep switching back and forth on this: at first it seems really dispiriting, that we have this massive information-gathering and -dispersal system, which seems to be devoted entirely to footage of a little old lady getting punched in the face. Then it seems almost reassuring: of all the millions and millions of little old ladies in America, only one of them got punched in the face this weekend — and it was unusual enough that the whole country is watching it on nine different channels. That’s pretty good odds. But then it seems dispiriting again. Because, you know. Little old lady getting punched in the face. In other news, I today renew my frequently-made vow to never get on an airplane again if I can possibly avoid it. Maybe I’m just doing it wrong, but it seems that after you factor in layovers, security checks, and transport to and from airports, the seven hour train ride I was considering would have been faster than this one hour flight is turning out to be. Given that we’ve already got a vacation flight booked for a couple of weeks from now, it’s not much of a vow. But I figure if I keep making it, eventually I can’t help but follow through.
I feel much the same way about those technologies; I am thrilled not to have a cell phone or TV, but when I visit my parents we always make plans from the car, and I watch crap TV at night.
I’ve tried to avoid flying as much as possible in the past few years, and I agree trains are infinitely more pleasant, but when you’re crossing great distances, it seems unavoidable. (Especially for international travel.)
—Seth
I always avoid television news. Period. The end.
I like having a tv that speaks to the satellite dish, but I mostly use it in an asynchronous way — e.g. every time we turn it on, there’s something on Tivo that I know I will enjoy.
And I like having a cellphone, though mine is oldschool — doesn’t have a keyboard, so it’s hard to text-message with it (which is mostly only an issue because E digs sms so much.) I like being able to call people from anywhere. Then again, I grew up in a household where the family business was early-model car phones, so I tend to take that kind of easy communication for granted in some way.
Flying, though — I love flying. g I could rhapsodize for paragraphs. There’s always good peoplewatching, and it takes me away from my ordinary sphere (because it always means I’m going somewhere, which is still novel enough to be fun for me.) I like the whole experience of it.
But I think there’s a mental adjustment to be made — a one-hour flight can’t mean a one-hour trip when one lives rural as we do. (My parents live 5 minutes from the airport, so they can travel easily in a way that you and I just can’t.) So I think the challenge may be finding a way to enjoy the transit…
you can’t drive to Maui. see you on the 25th
Those pesky pesky islands. I need a floating car.
Yeah. It’s a little reassuring to be reminded that my particular connectivity gaps are shared by, if not the mainstream, at least by some of my friends :)