I spend a great deal of time walking malls these days. My 12-year-old daughter is an aspiring actress and spends several days a week at a performing arts center located inside a mall. During the week I feel like I’m at a museum showing how people used to shop; the place is cavernous and largely deserted with only a handful of stores occupying the spaces between the large anchor franchises. On Saturdays, however, there tends to be more of a crowd, and it makes for some interesting people watching.
Last weekend I found it amusing to note how consistently generations define cell phone use. Older people in the crowd tended to be talking with each other, while the age group starting at around 30 (and below) were invariably glued to their smartphones. It was actually kind of amusing to watch people nearly run into each other or even into walls because they were so intent on their screens that they couldn’t tear their eyes away to see where they were going. I knew the high school kids I work around and my own daughter have screen addiction issues, but to watch so many adults completely incapacitated by the glow was really amusing.
It also explained a lot.
I have become a more aggressive driver of late, especially when approaching traffic lights. Some people start to slow down as they approach a GREEN light, perhaps in anticipation of the light changing. Of course, slowing down increases the likelihood that the light will change before you get to the intersection. There is even a safeguard in place to help prevent motorists from being trapped in the middle of an intersection, something we call a yellow light. If you’re approaching an intersection when the light turns yellow it’s perfectly fine to speed up or slow down depending on your proximity to the light, but slowing down on a green light is just freaking annoying to the people behind you. It also sets up the next problem.
Remember those folks who were too busy staring at their phones to avoid colliding with others in the mall? It turns out those people drive, too, and they’re equally distracted when they’re behind the wheel. When I am first in line at a stoplight, I watch the light and the traffic so that I’m ready to go when the green shines bright. Unfortunately, I appear to be in the minority here. It’s super frustrating sitting behind someone who hasn’t noticed the light change because they’re too busy with their phones. I try to give it a three-count before I honk at them, but more often than not a beep is necessary to jolt them from cyber world.
The older folks aren’t an issue here. They started slowing down long before they got to the intersection and I either got through the light ahead of them or they wound up behind me. Either way, we’re good. I won’t keep them waiting when the light changes.
I know cell phones aren’t only an issue at stoplights, and I’m sure the daily plague of freeway stoppages is due in part to these handy distractions. I have seen people driving 90 miles per hour, phone in hand, paying little or no attention to the road. I try to keep as far away from them as possible, so as not to be part of their inevitable crash. At least on the freeway they are easily avoided.
Of course, spending a few extra seconds at a green light really isn’t a huge deal, at the end of the day. It does, however, serve as a microcosm for a larger phenomenon in our society, one with more dire consequences. The more we surrender our minds to a Ready Player One or Matrix alternate reality the less attention we pay to the real world and the more susceptible we are to manipulation.
“Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.” Franklin D. Roosevelt
More and more we see politicians like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declaring war on education, but leaving out the difficult parts of history is nothing new. Much of what I was taught in history classes was, at best, whitewashed, and often resembled mythology rather than actual accounts of our collective past. The classic example, of course, is that Christopher Columbus discovered America. This is so patently false as to be embarrassing. Some would tell you the Holocaust didn’t happen, some believe the moon landing was faked, some are confused as to who won the 2020 US Presidential election, and now DeSantis says slavery in America was actually a blessing in disguise because slaves were taught trades. Thanks to social media (see: Netflix’s “The Social Dilemma” documentary) we can practically invent our own reality without ever being challenged by anything in our glowing screen’s carefully engineered “news” feed. This is manipulation on a scale never before seen.
If we can’t even pay attention to when a stoplight turns green or when we’re about to walk into a wall, what hope does our Democracy have in the light of such manipulation?
-B
Ishmael's Legacy 