Monday, July 7, 2014

The Beauty Of Technology

No point in voice mail.

People do not listen to voice mail messages anymore. Used to be when you called someone and they did not answer, you got redirected to voice mail and left a message explaining why you called. When it suited them, the call-ee would then listen to the message and call you back armed with pertinent information.

Today you get re-directed to voice mail to waste your breath. The call-ee at some point merely scans the phone to see who calls and then returns the call without having listened to the message.

This amuses me. They call you back and say "What's up? I see you called."

What do you mean, what's up? I just told you what's up. I took the time to record words into your device and you ignored them.

Me being a word guy, I usually leave creative messages. Give me a blank page or something to record on and I am going to try not to bore you. And truthfully, to entertain myself with my limitless wit and ingenuity.

All this effort is wasted. I am putting stuff out there that is evaporating into the stratosphere. Stuff that should be written down and savored, to be drawn back up out of the dark at my funeral service where people can say "Joe once left me this message that just cracked me up. You gotta here it. This is a perfect example of who Joe was."

"What's up? I see you just called."

Another example of the communications breakdown Led Zeppelin sang of on their mind blowing first album.

Actually the song had nothing to do with this topic. But the title fits and it is an awesome song.

Another wedge driven between humanity by technology.

I suppose I should be pleased that my calls are returned. The call-ee could look at their tiny little universe, I mean screen, and say "Oh no, I'm not returning this bozo's call." For the most part, that does not happen.

As far as I know.

Ironically enough the more technologically advanced we become, the less we communicate.

A brief aside: Another observation made during our amazing trip to Fenway in April: We drove part way towards Boston then hopped on trains. The trains were crowded. I scanned the crowd and wondered to myself "Who is the psycho killer about to explode in fists of rage?"

However, that is not the observation I meant to share. I noticed on that day the perfect use for "smart" phones.

People sat in their seats or stood shoulder to shoulder staring numbly at their glowing little screens. It was the perfect excuse to achieve anonymity in a crowd. Used to be you had to find a spot on the wall to stare at that would not give the person opposite you the impression you were staring at them. This was not easy to do for long periods in a dense crowd.

Now all you gotta do is look down at the magical device in your hand and voila - you are alone.

We have certainly come a long way.



No comments:

Post a Comment