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Every time I turn on my computer, the pop up ad is for O’Bama’s re election campaign. I can’t for the life of me figure out how any computer matrix could possibly conclude that I am interested in supporting that train wreck of a foreign born muslim fascist for a second term in office. But I don’t want to address, specifically, O’Bama the foreign born muslim fascist or Warren the lying communist menace. I want to address the issue of not only being out of touch, but also the matrix being out of touch with me.
I had a meeting I wanted to attend in Cambridge this week, and it was just easier to take the Red Line to Porter Square than to drive. As I was sitting on the T, something seemed really strange. Then I realized that it was really quiet, even though the train was really full. Upon closer examination, I noticed that every single person on that train, and I mean every single person, was either looking down at a cell phone, or was plugged into an MP3 player. I was also the only white person on the train, and the only person over 30. Well over 30. I remember being on that train twenty five years ago, when it was full of chattering college students, commuters and tourists. When I was commuting by T, I had come to know the commuters who rode the train the same time every day, and we would chat even though we had no other connection. The T had really become a diverse “third-place,” and a sort of welcome change in my day to the routine of the people with whom I was working.
I can’t relate to an under 30 crowd who simply plugs in, Borg-like, to electronic devices. So this is a crotchety complaint about the younger generation, and a question about whether this is unhealthy for society, for our democracy, for our way of life, for the life of urban fabric.
