A Horseradish
Friday 12th September 2014 8:59am [Edited]
8,475 posts
Quote: Nogget @ 12th September 2014, 8:52 AM BST
You make it sound as if you're proud of not having a mobile.
I don't think it's a higher way of living if that's what you mean. It's just that at quite a young age there is in everyone a sense of "normal life" being mad. Going backwards and forwards in tin cans on wheels. That sort of thing but the thought is brushed aside because everyone is doing it and, well, that is life and it's seen as a requirement. And as soon as you jump on the bandwagon, you quickly forget those qualms about insanity.
Later on, new things turn up. Mobile phones or whatever. And I remember thinking about those that they were going to be another something that everyone "did". I felt "no, this time I'm not going to play the game". I wanted to see how something seemed by not jumping on board. By then I'd stopped driving too. And it confirmed earlier suspicions that everything is crackers. It accentuates it and feels empowering.
Mobiles are the new cigarettes of course. There is no doubt in that whatsoever. The first rose in popularity as the latter fell. Both are distractions from immediate places and conversations. People used to block their mouths but now they mainly block their ears so that says quite a lot about how our lives were changing.
The authorities have tried to fight back with e-mails and forums. They couldn't find a new way of stopping people talking so they did the next best thing by making more of the talk written and consequently silent.