When walking, I lose count of the amount times I have to sidestep or literally swerve round people whilst on my daily commute to work. They always seem to not be totally there, as if they're seeing a world in another dimension, turning their head slowly around with a glassy thousand yard stare then seeing me at the last minute but not doing anything about it… and those are just the people who aren't glued to their smartphones!
When I'm out and about and walking, I walk, I don't meander from side-to-side, I observe what I need to see in order for me to get to where I want to go… and THEN I whip out my smarphone/Kindle. I say that because nowadays it's an accepted way of life (and I have a healthy appetite for good literature that my Kindle more than adequately satisfies) but at least I do it standing or sitting where I am not an annoyance or a danger to myself or anyone else.
It doesn't take much to look both ways before stepping out to look at the bus you're about to catch, or to read bus/train times, or to think ahead and get your train ticket out ready BEFORE you get to the ticket barriers. I mean, when crossing the road you don't just amble carelessly forward with your eyes fixed straight ahead do you?
Some people simply don't care, they're so enclosed in their little virtual biosphere of social media that they couldn't give a fuck about manners in a public place.
I blame Failbook (I can't bring myself to call it it's proper name). Mark Zuckerberg, you may be a computer whiz but I blame you for the continuing dumbing-down of humanity and I cite Failbook as evidence of this.
Failbook pros and cons:
For Failbook:
- It allows families separated by country borders to more easily keep in touch such as grandparents being able to see baby photos etc.
- It helps businesses promote their abilities and products more easily.
Against Failbook
- It makes people lazy - why go out and meet up when you can sit at home on your arse and chat via your mobile device or computer, this is one of the reasons why pubs across the length and breadth of Britain are closing in record numbers.
- Reduces intelligence - I cite an example where, in America, someone called 911 when the Failbook servers went down, sure they would not do this normally?!
- It's breaks up friendships and relationships - however I have to highlight no. 2 above, if you're stupid enough to put stuff on your wall that causes problems with your friends and/or significant other then it's your fault but if Failbook wasn't around then maybe you'd keep it to yourself? Although, again, I cite an incident recently, I was out with a friend in the pub and he put a comment on another of our friend's wall supposedly from me (my name was mentioned) it was a negative comment which I told him to remove but he just waved it aside claiming "he'll just delete it anyway"… so, here I am wondering if he's got a problem with me over something I never wrote, all because of Failbook and I'm not even a member!
- Bombards you with pointless advertising forcing you to spend money on products you don't need. Ultimately this is what Failbook aims to do - make money from targeted advertising, feeding shareholders rich enough to be able to afford a swimming pool in their third house, they don't care about the ills it causes, provided the ad revenue keeps piling in...
- Spreads malware and social engineering scams.
- Oh there's probably a dozen others I could think of but they'd probably merge in similarity with the list above...
My point is Failbook seems to bring out the worst in us and leave it there for all to see, back in the old days we socialised in a pub so at least you had a chance for redemption through alcoholic induced forgetfulness the next day! These days, in a pub, you look around and most people are head-down looking at their smart phone, seemingly having a conversation to someone miles away, yet their friends are RIGHT THERE next to them!
I'm not saying we lived in a perfect utopian society before the advent of Web 2.0 and social media, to be honest I think the dumbing-down started when e-mail hit the masses but I think Failbook contributes A LOT to the problem, people need to wake up and look around more.
So there I shall be, walking to the train station doing a Lionel Messi style dance through crowds of Failbook sheep wondering if humanity is heading towards the dystopian futures portrayed in either Wall.E or Idiocracy films.
