As the wise movie character Ferris Bueller once told us: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it.”
That movie is 40 years old. Yup, life moves pretty fast. Ferris told us this before the internet, before cell phones and before on demand everything. Remember when you planned your weeknights around your favorite shows? Thursday night, 9PM? I’m watching Cheers. I remember being in college and making sure that I was hip on In Living Color on Sunday nights if possible. Were things simpler then? I dunno.
Back to now. I will share that I often feel let down when I am out and about and so many people are looking at a small screen in front of them. Worse is when something cool and live is happening in front of them and instead of just soaking in the moment in real time, they quickly reach for their device, snap a photo or 12 and/or record video.
Here, a small trade is made: people choose to exchange being present for proof. You have likely heard the sentence: “Photos or it didn’t happen.” I realize that it’s a joke….kind of. OK, now you have proof but were you really present for the moment that just went by?
Here’s the thing. While you are occupied trying to take the perfect shot so you can reflect later or send it to others, or post it online, the moment passes. It’s gone and it’s never coming back. I’m not talking about taking photos of gatherings and stuff like we all used to do if we carried a camera (which was usually planned ahead of time). I understand the importance of capturing personal memories….what baffles me are the people who see a bird and reach for the phone. By the time you get your National Geographic shot, the bird is gone. You missed it. Or, you got the bird in flight and then YOU STARE AT YOUR PHONE to check the photo instead of actually watching nature live right in front of you. OK, you’re thinking…I don’t do that. Well, substitute whatever you want: a live sporting event, fireworks, sunsets, your food (no one gives a shit what you are eating) and/or taking a selfie somewhere where you shouldn’t….the worst abuse of this I have seen was INSIDE the Vatican. People were posing and flashing all kinds of hand signs that resulted in Papal security guards coming over to explain that this is not appropriate……Yeah….people needed to be TOLD this. Reminiscent of another line from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off: “I weep for the future.”
As my buddy Jake used to say…..”Pat, man….the end is near! Look at all of these people who have no clue what’s going on! THE END IS NEAR.” He was joking. I think. Maybe.
Next time you watch a sporting event on TV, look at the crowd. SO many people paying a LOT of money to be there and what do you see as you scan the audience full of fans? People with bowed heads looking at their damn screens. I’ve been at games where the live giant Jumbotron screen pans to someone in the crowd who is clueless and then starts a clock to see how long the poor slob will be oblivious to the surroundings. At one game, the timer was almost up to 5 minutes when some stranger poked the dude and pointed at the Jumbotron. Sad. Also sad…the word Jumbotron. Only in America I guess.
Things like this make me realize that many people have lost something besides common sense. Photo ‘dumps’, ‘highlight reels’ and mundane shit uploaded and sent to the other phone zombies and keyboard warriors. Sitting around reading some dumb ass blog when you should be interacting with another human. Oh wait. Not the blog part. Bookmark this and subscribe. I’ll share a cold ginger ale with you.
People that tell me that one of their favorite things to do is ‘power down the world, sit in the car, and scroll endlessly through the phone.’ Here’s my question: how did you survive stress before we all had a handheld device? Did you sit in your car with the radio on and just stare into nowhere? Actually, I have done that a bunch of times. It’s quite liberating.
Yeah, I know, I’ve written about our addiction to these baby rattles before and I’m too lazy to go back and link this sentence to an earlier writing. I can’t find it. The hell with it!
I just read back what I have here so far and I sound like a crotchety old man. Like I have a problem with everyone and everything. Want to know why? BECAUSE I DO. MUHAHAHAHA.
Of course, a problem for me, is not a problem for everyone else, which is the main reason that I do not already enjoy global domination. If everyone thought as I do, we would have no staircases, hotel rooms that were truly wheelchair friendly and a LOT more gentlemen’s clubs. Well, maybe not the last one for your conservative people….but I’m holding strong on ramps over stairs. I will die on that hill, if there’s a ramp up to it.
Look at me, off the track..Every. Single, Week. Can you hear me now? Has anyone realized that the people who make the money and scam all of us ants have talked millions of people into having MORE THAN ONE PHONE? We have a personal phone AND a work phone and almost no one questions this. We have advanced technology and the thing that you are reading these words on will be obsolete before you know it….because life moves pretty fast.
So while we go about our days, making sure that we have everything updated and working and shiny and able to take good pictures of things we almost never look at again, all of our old phones, computers and appliances go to places like Africa. Take a look at that link and story. I just read a book about this called “WASTE WARS.” It’s all about plastic, electronics and the business of ship breaking. Cruise ships, military vessels and commercial boats wind up in places like Turkey where they are dismantled dangerously and cheaply, so that countries in that area of the world can use second hand steel to construct their cities. Companies like Carnival cruise lines tell everyone that the majority of the ship gets recycled….just like we are told about our phones and computers, but it’s all a huge lie and the planet is suffering because of it.
The book has a fascinating chapter on all of the spam emails we get, and/or spam calls/texts from people looking for money, or claiming to be Arabian Princes. Much of the action is centered in African nations using our old discarded electronics that have been put on life support in order to scam us. The people who work these scams often find nothing morally wrong about scamming Europeans and Americans as it is us who dumped all this trash on them. They see this as payment. While you are telling yourself that you will never be scammed, as yourself why it’s still big business to those people if no one ever gets fooled. Also ask yourself why your new phone, which is primarily the same as your last one, still won’t be up to snuff in a few years and/or a few updates? How would Verizon make billions if we only needed to buy one phone one time? One laptop forever? We have been scammed to believe that we need new shit and we barely even question it.
Our entire society is ‘one use’ or ‘wear out and throw away’ No? How long did your dishwasher last before you got a new one? More than 10 years? Tell me where I can get one. Plastic fork? Use once (or not even once if it’s still in that fast food brown bag) and throw it out. Where is “OUT”. Somewhere else, not here. Screw it.
I read the Waste Wars book thinking that the final chapter would be: OK THIS ALL SUCKS, BUT HERE IS WHAT WE CAN DO AND THERE IS REASON TO HOPE.
Negative.
The book simply closes by saying that as long as companies and people are making money, nothing will change. What a sobering thought: money rules everything.
In review, we have gone from ignoring real life moments in order to film them, share them, and put them out into a space that is actually housed somewhere on some hard drive in some server farm somewhere that is using a ton of natural resources in order to give wealthy humans consistent shots of dopamine to make all of us feel better about ourselves all day each day.
I propose that we hang out with no phones. Just people and good conversation without distractions.
Let’s party like it’s 1999.
Better yet, write me a letter. Tell me a story or something that makes you get up each day. Ask me things, share a joke, and mail it to me. I’ll write back to you. Like the old days. Use paper and pen.
Moeschen
35 Howard St.
Salem, NH 03079
Stay safe, stay awesome and stay tuned. I’ll watch the mailbox. Please….no autographed photo requests, as my wife says “Don’t stroke his ego.”
Post Script: Brenda, do NOT send me a letter like the ones we used to exchange when we were in college. Let’s just leave that in the past.
Moeschen! 