The introduction of Blue Tooth ear pieces has made this nation look like figures featured in Jack Nicholson’s movie One Flew Over the Coo Coo’s Nest—talk, talk, talk while you walk, walk, walk and those near your space have no clue if you talking to them or a ghost that got away from Dan Akroid and Bill Murray.
How can we learn to respect other people’s space if our circle of life has been invaded by wandering lip syncing? It’s time for AT&T and Verizon to create a device that allows us to click double click beep, beep right into the passing conversation?
Until that day Anne Marie Sabath blares into her giant megaphone, “Turn your back to the public when trying to talk on a cell phone!”
At work, home or at the mall, the true invader of space isn’t the person walking by the conversation but the often loud communicator out to prove their power because being in public on a cell phone is like having two hundred billion dollars. Morally and ethically speaking—to keep peace on the streets, one should refrain from being on the tally-whacker or walk toward a corner of a store or library and hold discussions completely away from those not connected.
If such places aren’t available for your private concert, Anne Marie reverts to what she calls the safe zone—four feet away from a passerby or two adult arm lengths at a level of conversation that doesn’t require volume or animated inflection.
What about talking while you’re driving?
Research shows an increasing amount of car accidents occur when keepers of the conversation are intermingled with deep thoughts brought on by the blah blah blah on the other side. The reason why is because the human brain was truly created to do only one thing at a time. Multitasking is a Corporate American term that relieves bosses from having to be jerks at work—you’re mind, body and soul can’t give driving a 100% go if you’re thinking about or arguing with a second party usually connected via a cell phone.
While growing up in Montana I used to laugh at drivers who sang with their favorite song on the radio, waving their arms, holding a pencil or a bobby pin up to their lips while Elton John blurted out Crocodile Rock or the traveler who was deeply involved in heavy thought with the passenger in the front or back—as safe as that might sound, it too was extremely dangerous by keeping the mind off what it truly should be doing.
I’d ask you to disconnect but that would make me a hypocrite. Talking on the tiny box while driving is an addiction—just like drinking and driving…except it’s several hundred dollars cheaper to put a bottle up to your lips. Local governments talk the talk about making us hang up but cell phone makers keep coming up with new connections that instantly turn your radio into giant loud speakers—better hope to God the person calling in doesn’t start off with something crude, rude and totally off color...or a little me sits next to you in traffic impersonating your every move while talking. When did we learn to talk so much with our hands? Wouldn’t it be better to keep them on the steering wheel?
Respecting other people’s space is the key here!
In public on the little talk maker or while sitting high in that hot little car pouring out the verbiage like the water treatment plant on the outskirts of town—the end result of whatever tone you have ringing is a mental state of mind you’ve lost control of…and I’ve not even touched texting yet!
By the time we physically see what the tiny print is truly saying our eyes have been taken off the road long enough to take out a possum, two dogs and an eighteen year old cat named Freddy the heart breaker. No wonder squirrels and deer love to jump out at us—America’s Funniest Human’s in Shock has been a hit on animal television years before Homer and Bart Simpson plowed into our world of entertainment.
From outer space aliens naturally assume we are a people who love to communicate—ohhh it must look so cute to see so much talk, talk, talking. What they don’t see are the living rooms and kitchen tables that remain empty. Dinner has been served but nobody looks into the eyes of the person sitting next to them and softly says, “Zup?” It requires too much energy to be one on one.
arroecollins@clearchannel.com
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