Tuesday, November 11, 2003 :::
 
Yesterday's discussion of urban rudeness may have been a little hard on the young lady in the first instance. She was not so much actively rude as distracted and inconsiderate, mainly because she was talking on the cell phone about personal stuff which really could have waited, and probably should have waited until she was behind closed doors.

Lee Gomes, who writes the excellent "Portals" column for the the indispensible Wall Street Journal had an excellent bit on that very point yesterday morning. We are developoing an unfortunate habit of "absent presence," being in a room with other people but communicating with yet other people who are elsewhere. It is a bad habit. That this was coming was evident in Italy quite a few years ago, where, being ever so fashion conscious, they glommed onto cell phones before we did. Standing in a 16th Century plaza in an ancient hiltop town and listening to people all talking to others was rather disorienting, but it was the wave of the future and it is here. The advice that Mr. Gomes gave is sound: if you want to help stamp out absence presence, the next time you can hear a keyboard clicking while you are talking to someone on the phone, tell them to stop typing and listen.

::: posted by A Mind That Suits at 2:46 PM


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What doesn't kill me, makes me laugh... usually.