I'm sorry to admit that a computer has now actually become a necessary travel accessory for me, but it has. For my specific travel computing needs, a notebook type PC is perfect. That's kept me from being tempted to buy a tablet, and since I don't own a smart phone (and never will) I have been blissfully insulated from the horrifying level of distraction I see around me in fellow travelers. My years in Mexico made me the "frog in hot water" with regards to the widespread change in behavior that has come with smart phones. (If you haven't heard the analogy, it's said that if you drop a frog in hot water, it will jump right out to save itself, but if you put a frog in cold water, and then heat it slowly, it doesn't notice the dangerous increase in temperature, and just sits there until it's too late).
In the late 90's, cell phones were pretty much just phones, and I never got involved in their slow transformation into what are really just tiny tablet computers. In fact I worked in the cellular phone industry back then, and it was while I was at a seminar to roll out the new "data services" that I first saw the social apocalypse coming. A rabid presenter was urging the sales-troops to sell-Sell-SELL the expensive new data airtime packages on the reasoning that without them, the users wouldn't be able to keep up with work on their lunch hours, during their time at home, and while on vacation. I was wondering if I was the only person in the room that had recognized what an insane proposition that was, when I looked around me to see a room full of equally rabid cell-phone salesmen that were frothing at the mouth over the opportunity to make a killing while ruining pretty much everyone's lives. (I was living on a island in the Caribbean within a year of that nightmarish day).
Consequently, I was unnerved to see how much things had changed in my absence, with armies of zombie-like smart phone users roaming the streets, their eyes and thumbs firmly glued to the screen in front of them, and apparently oblivious to the real world. I felt like the only person left in Invasion Of The Body Snatchers that hadn't been taken over by the "pods" yet. It's bad enough to see it in my hometown, but on a recent cruise to Hawaii, I saw people (most people I might add) that were never "in the moment" of their travel experience for more than a few minutes at a stretch. Instead, they were single-mindedly focused on figuring out how to keep their electronic slave-drivers connected so they could obsessively check their Facebook accounts, or whatever it is they do with those things.
In the late 90's, cell phones were pretty much just phones, and I never got involved in their slow transformation into what are really just tiny tablet computers. In fact I worked in the cellular phone industry back then, and it was while I was at a seminar to roll out the new "data services" that I first saw the social apocalypse coming. A rabid presenter was urging the sales-troops to sell-Sell-SELL the expensive new data airtime packages on the reasoning that without them, the users wouldn't be able to keep up with work on their lunch hours, during their time at home, and while on vacation. I was wondering if I was the only person in the room that had recognized what an insane proposition that was, when I looked around me to see a room full of equally rabid cell-phone salesmen that were frothing at the mouth over the opportunity to make a killing while ruining pretty much everyone's lives. (I was living on a island in the Caribbean within a year of that nightmarish day).
Consequently, I was unnerved to see how much things had changed in my absence, with armies of zombie-like smart phone users roaming the streets, their eyes and thumbs firmly glued to the screen in front of them, and apparently oblivious to the real world. I felt like the only person left in Invasion Of The Body Snatchers that hadn't been taken over by the "pods" yet. It's bad enough to see it in my hometown, but on a recent cruise to Hawaii, I saw people (most people I might add) that were never "in the moment" of their travel experience for more than a few minutes at a stretch. Instead, they were single-mindedly focused on figuring out how to keep their electronic slave-drivers connected so they could obsessively check their Facebook accounts, or whatever it is they do with those things.
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| Your travel memories should look like this... |
Bear in mind, we're in Hawaii here, and it was no doubt the first visit for most of them, yet I'll wager that the thing they saw MOST of during their entire fifteen day cruise, was the screen of their smart phone. At the dinner table, during shows, during excursions, on the beach, in the lounges, at the movie theater...NEVER free. There's a pretty fine line between that sort of obsessive phone checking, and laying in your cabin in a heroin induced stupor. Both are addictive behaviors, and both rob the user of the real pleasures of the real world, uninterrupted by constant pointless distraction. (Indeed, there seems to be a real chemical dependency here related to dopamine production in the brain. See this link about the condition called "Nomophobia"). And if you're reading this and thinking that I'm the one with a screw loose, just try to leave your phone in the drawer for a whole day and see what happens. It's wireless heroin, and I weep for this generation.
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| Or like this... |
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| But NOT like this! |
I realize that trying to tell people to give up their smart phone mania is like trying to tell people to give up their cars and go back to the horse and buggy for a better way of life. It's not going to happen. But at least make the effort to moderate your behavior, and dial it back while you're dropping five grand to go on a cruise to a beautiful group of tropical islands in the Pacific. Set yourself a specific half an hour of time each day and then ruin it completely with your phone, the same way I do with my travel computer. Then the other 23 1/2 hours a day you'll be free from the evil little device, and you might actually remember a few sights that didn't include a smart phone screen.
Aloha!
Fox & Vicky
Aloha!
Fox & Vicky
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