SHHH...MY BEST BUDDY IS MY iPHONE...texting is preferable to conversation

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SHHH...MY BEST BUDDY IS MY iPHONE...texting is preferable to conversation.

I first noticed it in Java.

Go to a restaurant and the tables are full...but silent. No conversation during meals...the only sound waiters clattering plates...patrons silent.

In shopping centre corridors...no conversation.

In trains packed with people...no conversation.

Everyone looking into their mobile phones...texting...or whispering into these tablets of anti-socialism.

Even saw the drivers of mopeds texting!

I saw the film Timbuktu during the Sydney Film Festival last year...morning session. Walking back to the railway station I wished I had my camera.

George Street was packed with people but I only noticed the lots of young people sitting in doorways...on steps...on any form of seating...heads down...absorbed in their private world...no conversation...all much too busy texting.

You know I like portraits...or at least some know I do.

Seemed just natural for me to want to return to these places to photograph them texting...documenting their distractions...their loss of the ability to converse...to smile at a little screen rather than their companions...their ebbing humanity.

But I got busy.

I probably got put off with the idea of snapping away without their knowledge...without seeking prior consent...and you all know how I feel about that!

But the idea lingered.

Must have been stored in an unlocked cupboard in my brain...maybe a dusty shelf if that's what we have up there.

'Cause the idea resurfaced on our recent North & South American tour!

The plane was delayed out of Sydney to Los Angeles.

They had to get a replacement plane of all things.

Of course that meant we missed our connecting flight to Vancouver.

That meant 6 hours at LAX instead of 2. Changed the airline for that leg from United to Alaskan.

Also meant I saw heaps of people texting in the Airports.

Some looked bored...few had the occasional giggle...some frowned...some had no expressions at all.

And all were so absorbed the only sound were from the P.A. systems.

No conversation...or if there was it was a grunt...a gesture...a glance to say can't you see I'm busy?

I saw humanity on it's knees begging.

I saw families with artificial fences dividing them...connected by little black wires coming out of their ears...connected by silence...by inability or reluctance to engage in conversation.

And nil were aware this Aussie was snapping away...capturing what was left of their souls...capturing their distractions with my lens.

And then in Canada I started noticing people walking on footpaths texting...even crossing the road texting.

Even signs warning of the danger of driving cars while texting such as:

"Thumbs Up. Phones Down. 36%!o(MISSING)f drivers text in traffic. 100%!o(MISSING)f them are more likely to get in an accident."

Starting meals in restaurants texting.

Everywhere texting.

I remembered as a child we'd go out to play...hide and seek...stalkings...climbing trees...swings...only coming inside when the bell rang or it was time for dinner.

I remembered when daffodils and snowdrops would bloom in Spring...cicadas would come out in summer...when watching trails of ants was interesting...playing in the bush...knowing where all the caves were...backyard cricket...hitting a tennis ball against a wall until I was really good...calling coo-ee until the boy across the road would come running out...and away we'd go...chatting incessantly...joined by other kids...laughing...distracted only by our imaginations.

And then I'd return to the real world...and see that those chatty times are long gone.

Yeh...long gone.

'Cause everyone is too busy texting.



Relax & Enjoy,

Dancing Dave

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Comments

[Kuan Yin]

Put down the damn phone!
I think cell phones are one of the greatest dangers to civilization of our time. I've seen a group of teenage girls - presumably friends - walking on the beach in Barbados, and none of them were talking, only texting. Texting has gotten so bad in Singapore that there are PSAs in the metro telling people to look up while they are walking. An selfies! Don't get me started on this stupid habit. What are you trying to prove? And to whom? The one good thing about the cell phone craze is that I can be pretty autonomous: taking pictures, walking faster than the crowd, getting that last seat on the metro.

[Dancing Dave]

Put down the damn phone!
A sentiment from my own heart Karen. Well said. Reminds me of my Argentinian friend who grabbed his daughter's and threw it in their swimming pool!!! Great you can time who to beat to the last seat on the metro. But where is society heading when you need signs to tell people to keep their heads up to see where they are going?

[Anita]

Surely not ... no of course not ...
I dropped everything to read this blog when I saw the title. Could it be that the man who could barely turn on a phone was actually texting?! Then a I read I realised the truth. Admittedly I am one of those phone addicts you speak of (although the Android version) but I draw the line at using it while at a restaurant or while driving. FYI they probably aren't all texting. You can actually access the internet, read blogs (like I'm doing now) or even take photos of people "texting" without their permission. Perhaps you'll turn up on someone else's blog. "Using a camera instead of an IPhone... he must be a professional..."

[Dancing Dave]

Surely not ... no of course not ...
No way. No way I'd be txting Anita. Too busy for that. You are not pinching my 3 dots are you???

[Grey haired nomad]

Txting
My sentiments exactly. But then, I'm from the era before you. I have a mobile - but no signal at home. Only Janice knows the number - I don't! I used it once, I can't remember why. Just off for a walk to smell the roses. David

[Dancing Dave]

Txting
Great to hear from a like mind. I also have a mobile. An old Nokia. Only use it when I go to court...but then I don't turn it on! And txting...I don't txt...period. I am on the phone constantly in the office for my work...why create more work?

[D MJ Binkley]

Priceless!
Wait, wait, I've got to text Dave so he can read this blog. Priceless my friend. Not just LA but worldwide as you say....but this must have been great entertainment while in the airport. The perfect place for your photo shoot. Glad you unlocked the cupboard in that ridiculously insane brain of yours. Dave and I now have iPhones but until a few months ago Dave still had a flip phone. The Smithsonian called and asked him to turn it in. Thanks for the commentary on modern day life.

[Dancing Dave]

Priceless!
Great to see my blog is hitting the mark MJ. Considering we are back this week from our amazing Nth & Sth American tour of 7 countries, Denise could not understand when I said I'd kick it off with a blog about txting! But that's how our adventures began...everyone else txting!!!!

[D MJ Binkley]

Texting...sigh
Dangerous Dave here........couldn't agree more. It was about seven years ago when I first noticed this same social disease. Four young lads sitting at a table outdoors next to a river, none speaking, only staring at their phones....just sad. The art of conversation will soon be truncated to mere blurbs....sorry....must go as my phone just pinged....

[Dancing Dave]

Texting...sigh
Hi Dangerous One. In Java it was everyone in packed restaurants...everyone. At the airports it was nearly everyone. I call it the demise of the human race...you call it a social disease. Time we worked on appropriate medication...food for thought!!!

[littlewing]

Yes and STOP bloody messaging me!
Thank you Dave for saying everything I feel - I get so angry with phones that I almost throw the phone if people text me. Its annoying to find people my age hooked into this texting thing who think I want to hear about their problems 18 times a day.....and did you notice the first thing people do when a plane lands? Get out their phones!!! Im trying to make a tight connection and some numpty infront of me is texting rather than getting his bags and getting off the plane......grrrrrr!!

[Dancing Dave]

Yes and STOP bloody messaging me!
Easy resolution Cindy. Don't turn your phone on! Quite right about the mobile being the first thing switched on when planes land. Now that planes are altering the rules so some electrical devices can remain on throughout a flight the telcos must be delighted. "About to land...not really...about to land...I think so...yes about to land...I'll let you know as soon as we do so. Hello...Hello...are you even slightly interested." SPARE ME!

[nancic123]

Finally!
Finally, somebody wrote it! Way to go, Dave! We just came back from a wonderful walk around the narrow streets of Venice. Nothing worse than getting behind someone walking with a phone. If they are not txting, they are using it to guide themselves through the streets. Weaving back and forth blocking everyone from passing. If they are not on the phone, they have it on a "selfie-stick" and are filming themselves blocking everyone behind them. I don't know why they even come on vacation sometimes. I sit in restaurants and see a family of four spending time together, all four with a phone in there hand. I don't know if I should hate them or just feel sorry for them.....Again, good job. Something that needed to be said!

[Dancing Dave]

Finally!
Yes finally Nanci. I had the courage to do a blog of stolen images...permission the last thing on my mind. A nice reminder to look and see how many people out there are led through life by their mobile phones. Look and be amazed. There are more than you think.

[Carolyn Taylor]

How about kids as young as 2 on ipads?
Oh boy, you're going to stir up a hornet's nest here.... My name is Carolyn but I write as 'gunga'. I've been reading you for a few years and love your dancin'. I follow Merry Jo and Dangerous Dave and they follow me. Recently, they stopped in Memphis and we had a wonderful dinner at the best Bar-B-Que place in town. Yes Memphis ! I was so disappointed that you came right through Memphis and I didn't get to meet you. If you ever get this way again know that you are invited to stay at my house- 2nd or 3rd weekend in January is the big blues competition, you'll come! Now to the blog- I agree with some of what you said. I use my phone to learn Spanish via the free app 'duolingo' and I play Words with Friends and keep up with my kids and grandkids in different parts of the US. Some of us need to notify the people picking us up at the airport when we land... so cut us a little slack. I don't find the iphone obsession anywhere near as annoying as people who listen to music and the noise bleeds through their headphones. Really they most likely wouldn't care for my choice in music and I definitely don't care for theirs. The best babysitter since TV is now a phone or tablet. Kids as young as a year know how to play games, etc. Makes for quieter flights and I don't mind that. As an educator it makes me cringe when I think of all the time the child has spent on a device to learn such skills- time that would have been better spent running and playing outdoors, climbing trees, etc. using and building muscles instead of only exercising a few fingers.

[Dancing Dave]

cut us a little slack
Catfish, ribs & fried green tomatoes I'll eat with you in Memphis gunga...washed down with some sweet Beale Street blues. But no slack! Dancing on tables in this blog and the pics I only jabbed at observations of txting...and maybe the odd dig at mobiles before planes landed. We used iphones for facetime from the Americas to Oz...even with the Dangerous One & MJ and with Home & Away. Great use. But mindless txting to replace conversation? Still prefer the spoken word. There's probably a blues song in that!!!

[Laila the Tuareg]

In defence of smart phones, my iPhone is my personal assistant. It allows me freedom from being anchored to a desk, I can do my banking, pay bills, address emails, send voice messages , deal with last minute changes to plans, make notes, take photos/videos, txt & make phone calls, play beautiful music, become my latest book, access internet, social media, diarise my life, remind me to do things - the list is endless & I do it in my time & in places that suit me. The trick is to REMAIN IN CONTROL ie. I do these things when it suits me not when it suits others. I do not interrupt conversation to take a call or check an incoming txt or email. MyiPhone will do as I instruct AND IT NEVER EVER replaces face to face conversation & interaction over social situations- except when when I facetime/video skype in which case I can still read facial & physical prompts. I say embrace technology but don't let the smart phone be smarter than you.

[Dancing Dave]

my iPhone is my personal assistant
That's why we are married my love. You are the smart one...I'm just a dancer. And when the phone rings during dinner...or that bip bip that a txt has come in...do you drop everything and answer it? No you do not. Considering your dance partner before your iphone? That's a new angle for this debate. How lucky am I?

[Sal Gal]

The art of face to face talking
It's a pet peeve of mine too Dave. My husband & I only broke down and updated our dinosaur phones when our oldest daughter started high school 2 years ago. We don't use our phones even when we travel (I know, hard to believe). We have them with us (and if needed in an emergency, they are easily accessible). We figure our daughters will probably be proposed to via text :( (Nah that won't happen in this family!) This is a generation that may be the "most connected" yet the most disconnected. But we are fighting the good fight in our home: no cell phones at the table. when you can, call us, don't text - phones go on the dining room table before sleep so they're not waiting for that incessant beep like "Pavlov's" dog. Our other 2 girls are 13 & 9 and they have no cell phones & aren't bothered by it in the least. We just don't want to raise social dimwits who don't know how to converse. Our kids are used to hearing, "pick up a book", "type a story", "go for a walk", and, ahem, my best line "heck if you're bored, read your mom's wonderful blogs! (insert humor here).

[Dancing Dave]

The art of face to face talking
Well done Sal. Inspirational parenting. And in the end your children will thank you for it. Some things are worth fighting for...and this is one of them...kids connected with and conversing with parents & others...bravo!

[D MJ Binkley]

Irritation
Love the hand gestures on this one.

[P.C. Bodh]

The Silent Tabplanet
You have interestingly brought the phenomenon of this earth becoming tab-planet in your your description of Java experience. Who knows they will discover ways to execute all human and social activities through tab-commands.

[Dancing Dave]

The Silent Tabplanet
Wow P.C. Are we getting that close that life will become a Sci/fi movie? Interesting thought!

[denidax]

Phone addiction
Not long ago Dax, Ella and I walked into a bar and ordered drinks and tapas; there was a family of 5 sitting on a table next to us and they weren't talking, each had a phone in their hands. A few minutes later a copule walked in and join them... in silence they took their phones out and sat there with the other five, without talking! Seven people on the same table and not a word!. We were in the bar for about half an hour and in all that time none of them uttered a word. It was really sad to see. I think it's not only texting but using the internet as well, smartphones are smarter than some of the people who use them... but whatever it is they do with them it is destroying conversation and human interaction. I'm worried how Ella will make use of the technology when she grows up... but we have a rule in our house that while we eat, the phones are banned from the table, not that she has one yet, but she can get use to it from now on. People switching their phones on as soon as the plane lands... why are they in such a hurry?. And I agree with karen on the selfies... it's soooo annoying!!

[Dancing Dave]

Phone addiction
Your observations Deni prove this is a worldwide phenomenon. Pretty scary. A bit like smoking when I was a youth. If you didn't smoke you weren't cool so everyone did it. Then what happened? Suddenly the World was educated cigs were leading to a slow death. The mobile phone addiction is a reality. What will be the cause and effect? Whooh...smokin'!!!

[traveltalesofawoollymammoth]

So very true....
Such a sad fact of life and one that sadly I have been known to do as well. The speech I gave for my 50th in September reflected on the days when a phone was firmly attached to a wall, inside a house and involved a party line and the need to wait for the other party to conclude their call before making your own...... sigh..... we even held conversations with people in person!

[Dancing Dave]

So very true....
Sigh. Ah the memories Jo. Conversations person to person...wall phones you only had to answer if you wanted to...content they'd ring back. Ah the memories.

[Ake Och Emma]

Parents pay less attention to their children today
In some kindergartens they have had to put up signs saying "Mobile phones not allowed" because they have noticed that parents, when they drop off or pick up their children, pay very little attention to their children. They are too busy talking or texting on the phone. So busy that their own children get no affection, no attention and not even a smile /Ake

[Dancing Dave]

Parents pay less attention to their children today
Scary stuff Ake. In restaurants in Java the kids were given computer games so the parents were not disturbed while txting. While I'm at it two other things I hate: People diverted from a social gathering by answering their mobile and wandering away, and: People txting at concerts. Their phone is like a torch distracting all around them. Grrr!

[The Ghost of Cockle]

The End of Civilisation as We Know It.....
Oh myyy David....!!! Have you usurped my former place as TB's resident curmudgeon? That said, you are of course, spot on here.... I've always said that while technology has its place in the world, it will ultimately cause our demise, both socially and intellectually, not to mention the detrimental effect it is going to have on our health over time. Indeed, it would seem that many are gladly running headlong towards an idiocracy where one day, everything will be done with a gormless, robotic press of a button...... Mind you, it does give those of us who like to people watch, hours of fun observing these zombified automatons 'communicating' with each other about the latest, banal episode in their obviously, empty and vacuous lives..... :)

[Dancing Dave]

The End of Civilisation as We Know It.....
Oh Nick. Great to see the cheeky burger van emerge from the shadows...an issue to wet the cockles. Thank you for your somewhat guarded response to my understated approach to this earth shattering subject. I fear 'tis too late my friend. This gen is doomed...sliding to ignonimy. And we perchance can only watch...and cry...helpless to save the younguns from their chosen plight. This subject was raised on the radio today. An "expert" surmising this will be a temporary fad...something else will come that will revive the art of communication by conversation. I'd agree if others would listen. But I fear they won't. 'Cause they're all too busy txting!!!