There was this moment.
Recently, I was sitting in an airport waiting to board my flight. As is my habit, I’d gotten there early, purchased a book, and begun reading.
After a bit, I looked up and glanced around. About then, a woman seated across from me said, “I just finished that book and you’re going to like it.”
Her husband, seated with her, asked if I enjoyed that particular author, which led to a discussion of other books by the same author, questions about other titles in the genre, and about 30 minutes of just plain good conversation.
During said conversation, her husband and I also found that, in addition to similar tastes in books, we’d both had careers at sea and, in general, had plied the same waters.
In other words, we connected and, had we been flying to the same destination, would’ve likely talked much more, traded phone numbers, and possibly started down the road to becoming very good friends.
The “moment” I mentioned at the beginning of this piece, however, came later that day as I was waiting for a connecting flight at a second airport.
I’d pulled out my book and was, again, about to begin reading when I looked around and was struck by something.
The seating at this gate was pretty standard — arranged to allow as many passengers as possible to sit while waiting to board their flight. I was in an “L” shaped section of the gate that had 18 seats — all occupied. Seventeen people (I was number 18) were all head down, staring intently at some small screen, and merrily thumbing away at some message or other.
No one was talking to anyone else. No conversations were in progress. Nor did anyone seem the least bit disturbed, annoyed, or struck by the (in my Neanderthal opinion) oddity of it all.
And, then, it occurred to me that this was the “new normal” wherein many “conversations” now occur electronically even though others are close at hand. In fact, I’ve often seen where, even if a conversation is currently taking place, a beep from some device will take precedence over anything being discussed.
I’m not a big one for change even though I do appreciate many of the conveniences modern things provide. My attitude, while very contentedly remaining on the periphery of changes occurring around me, remains “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” — which is why I still read (actual) books and have a newspaper delivered daily.
In the communications arena, I have an old flip phone with a cracked face that I use to make calls. I often forget to turn it on and I haven’t a clue as to how to use most of its other features even though I seem to be able to take pictures of the inside of my pocket on a regular basis.
I further confess that I know not of Blackberries, Androids, iPhones, 4G, Bluetooth, or what-have-you.
Like many other “Neanderthals,” when I feel the need to “connect” I tend to do that in person and, generally, avoid interruptions. In the past week, I’ve sat down with two good friends — in each case, for more than an hour — and delved into solving the problems of the world, new aches we’ve discovered, what our families were doing, politics, weather, etc. This, without anyone having any electronic device to hand. And we were comfortable with it all.
Which is a fast-fading normal.
All of which has led me to understand that certain things are simply tending, as they will, to move on.
The people I watched in the airport seemed content to be texting away and saw nothing odd in carrying on these electronic “conversations” even if close friends, family, or the odd stranger with a familiar book were nearby.
It was, again, the new normal.
I don’t pretend to know where all of this is headed or what it means as regards our ability to interact in person. I just hope that we never lose the ability (or desire) to occasionally look up from whatever screen we’re absorbed in and notice that there’s someone nearby who might be more interesting in person than he or she would be in text.
I guess it’s just the still hopeful human in me.
Larry Simoneaux lives in Edmonds. Send comments to: larrysim@comcast.net
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
