Time Shifting

More random thoughts in search of a theme.

A good friend of mine refuses to use e-mail.  She's something of a technophobe, and always manages to bungle up her computer every time she touches it, so she has learned to avoid touching it.  As a result she and I play telephone tag: she calls when I'm not home, and when I call her back she's not home.  This can go on for weeks.

I refer to the telephone as an "interruption technology" because it demands you put down whatever you're doing and turn all your attention to it.  In this day & age that is increasingly not how people operate.

People e-mail, people text, people leave status messages on Facebook.  People DVR their TV shows so they can watch them when it's convenient.  

When news happens, I can always catch up with it on YouTube or online sources.

I heard Keith Emerson had died yesterday before the news media even got the story, because somebody I know is Facebook friends with Carl Palmer.  Sometimes news travels faster through the Internet.

Kids these days stream music, and the entire history of music is at their fingertips.  They don't know or care if Hendrix played "Red House" first, or Stevie Ray Vaughan played "Red House" in the style of Jimi Hendrix.  To them, it is two similar artists playing the same song.  Starcastle sounds like Yes, but it could be Yes is copying Starcastle, they don't know.  Or care.  The playing field is absolutely level, because all timeline clues have been removed.

I'd not be able to handle a friend like that.
To me, the telephone is the communication equivalent of a toddler going "see to me now, see to me now!" I don't like doing it to others and I won't stand for it much being done to me. The adult method is to text or email. It allows the receiver to work you into his or her schedule as they can. Because, you know, I'm an adult. I comprehend that your world probably consists of things you have to do other than talk to me.

Perhaps it is confirmation bias, but in my world the people who insist on using phones are invariably the most privileged and self absorbed of the group.


The music thing- it really depends on the kid. I have met some people closer to my kids age who have real appreciation for the differences and know things like a woman originally did Elvis's Hound dog. But then, down here we have a real grassroots music tradition. I know Seattle has strong music roots and I can't comment on how those are different or may add to the situation. But down here, there is a real respect for the "old school".

I don't mind people calling me on the telephone. I hope they don't mind it when I don't answer.
I have never felt any obligation to answer the phone.

_Howard wrote:

I don't mind people calling me on the telephone. I hope they don't mind it when I don't answer.
I have never felt any obligation to answer the phone.

You have relaxed and groovy friends, perhaps? I have known people to get sand in their vagina over an un-returned call from the same day. Maybe it's generational.

Owww Owww Owww.