Our Phones are too Smart.
While it's not usually in my nature to write up my manifestos on the Downfall of Western Culture, I sure think about it a lot. Not in the tinfoil hat way either, but in the way that says "Pay attention to this thing happening, it's probably going to end up shaping the world and you don't want to get caught short."
So I went to a pizza party last year for muckity-mucks from a conference here in Perth called "Edge of the Web". Since I'm apparently "edgy" and "webby" I was asked to speak and then attend a Build Your Own Pizza party at the chairman of the Australian Web Industry's house. It wasn't a screamer, but was fun enough, and the whole night I watched this quiet gent poking away at his iPhone (I think they'd just came out or something).
Now, I barely got 4 words out of this guy and was within arms reach of him most of the night, yet when I got home and saw all these mentions of me on Twitter I saw that he'd been standing there taking pictures with his phone and tweeting things about what was going on at the party. Not the least of which was me jackassedly comparing the Boy Scouts to the Porn Industry and smashing an entire stack of pizza boxes with a 4-foot leap and my motorcycle boots.
In his tweets he was laughing and interactive and having a great time. In "Real Life" he stood relatively expressionless and saying little.
Flash forward to a webnerd meetup downtown a month or so ago and I've ridden the train in because then I don't have to count drinks and can be home in time to sloppily kiss wife and pass out. A fun night in an upstairs bar/lounge where I brazenly made my way around the different tables introducing myself to people I didn't know and tickling the nipples of those I did. All up though, conversation was limited to me and 2 other mates that sat and had beers for a while. Neither of whom tweeted about it later, while there were forum posts and many a tweet later from the assembled mob about the drinks and the pizza and the presentation we'd watched.
Funny, I barely saw anyone up at the bar with us and NOBODY said anything about the pizza that was nearby me. 40 people maybe, most silent in person, yet so many so vocal when their fingers are skittering across the keyboard on their phones.
It used to be that if you were hanging out with somebody and they were madly twiddling away on their phone, it meant that they were having a fight with their girlfriend who was in the doctor's office, or the library, or in a movie theatre. There was an apology and/or an explanation at least. Now I see somebody doing it while we're socialising and I don't even get an "I'm Facebooking this! This is great!"
They just tuck their heads down and further absorb themselves in their e-world, ignoring the "real" one.
At the end of that night downtown, I boarded a 9:30 train and sat down in a relatively crowded carriage. As I walked past no fewer than 5 "Smart" phones of varying brands I considered pulling out my phone if I felt like playing "Tank Blow Up" like I do on the toilet. I didn't.
Instead I sat next to two dolled-up gals on their way to the casino and some booze-smelling derelict toting his broken down bike and a beat-up fishing hat. He got to talking with them, as drunken derelicts do, and asked if they were Aboriginal ("Noongar" is the local tribe). They both said they were and he mentioned proudly that he used to be housemates with a prominent Noongar musician. I chimed in excitedly that I loved her stuff as I listen to her on Noongar Radio (because it plays some decent stuff and is commercial free), and the two older gals started chatting with me too.
Before I knew it, we were talking about how "Closing the Gap" is a nice movement and all, but that to truly affect change in the Australian Aboriginal community, we can't keep using the "white" mentality to try and change all the Noongar into white folks (like they did with the "Stolen Generation"), we need to use the Noongar culture to educate the Noongar and white folks alike to teach respect and give it more importance in our daily lives.
We sat and talked animatedly about how educating our children on the importance of the culture that the white folks almost obliterated is one of the most important things we can do for the next generations, and only in changing how the next generations think are we ever going to do anything about "Closing the Gap".
Since both gals were "Stolen Generation" this kind of issue impacted them quite deeply, and both related tales of sadness in watching Noongar youths wander this city completely lacking in any cultural identity, and how that probably is what contributes to their unfocused anger.
And to think, if I'd had earbuds in and was simply tweeting away about the bourbon-soaked bum and the loud and heavily-perfumed Aboriginal ladies going to the bloody casino, I never would've had a conversation that I'll remember forever.
