Wednesday, February 7, 2007

For my ears only!


Everywhere I go, nowadays, I see many people with wires coming out of their ears. Not that they are aliens, but I am amused by the revolution that the personal media players have brought to us.


I know of a time, not long ago, when such a thing in public would be winced at. But now, I find myself wincing at someone who "disturbs" me while I'm listening to U2 on my iPod.


Analysing the situation helped me discoved some interesting things:


First, you find more wired guys than the un-wired ones. Some three years back, this ration was reverse. So clearly music-on-the-go concept is finding more and more followers.


Secondly, and more disturbing one, we care less and less about the world around us. I look at the wired species closely and realise that they don't care who is sitting next to them in the train. It seems as if their world has shrunk and got inside their ears and all they can do is "listen" to it to keep connected to it.


Although companies hype such products as a lifestyle product, I really feel that all these jazzy things are doing is detach us from each other. Is that on the agenda of "lifestyle enhancement"? Make us feel forgotten, left out?


Imagine a society where everyone is engrossed in their own devices. People do not have time to talk to each other. And then as time goes by, people forget how to talk to each other. Communication becomes a forte of the devices only. The mouth looses its utility (well, partial utility actually, because you can't eat through your music player :) and you can't kiss someone using your music player. Others may have found more uses of the mouth but I am not interested in talking about them here.).


A scary future. I hope it doesn't happen. All revolutions are not good. And a revolution that has gone rogue, is definitely not worth it.


Maybe I am dreaming a lot. But I love my iPod too. I think I need to turn that iPod off for a while.




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