Seriously not the place dude

So I'm not exactly anti new technology but I do think that some people take it too far.

And I'm pretty sure I've spoken about this before and tried, somewhat unsuccessfully, not to come off as an old fogey but I really think some folks go a tad far with their need to use their phones for recording and other purposes at the most inopportune time. Its like we've reached this stage where if you don't have a recording or photo of it to show others it didn't happen or the event is somehow invalidated.

Look at the photos showing groups of other persons with cameras and tablets held aloft at some concert or sporting event these days. It appears we have reached a stage where society would rather view an event through a digital lens than through their God given eyeballs.

And then there is the other case where we must be connected 24-7 regardless of where we go. Its like WI-fi is the new umbilical cord in this connected womb we now exist in. To not be connected and fed information, to be unconnected for even a few seconds and be out of the loop is somehow worst than death.

My weekend activities seemed to all validate this notion.

Smartphones

So Premier Mcguinty wants the school boards to allow cellphones in class arguing that teachers can show students how to use smart phones to access information on the internet.

To this I simply ask is which cellphone company you promoting Mr Premier? Rogers, Bell, Telus and the rest duz already mek tummuch money off all we. Smartphones don't grow on trees ya kno! And besides phone duz need contract, and de stupid smartphone specially duz need smarter and more expensive data plan pun top a contract to do anything smart-ish which duz leff ya pockets smarting and ya duz cann even afford two Smarties when the day dun.

Ya want we now to have to buy cellphones for the children now on top a books, on top a computers, on top of every lil fund raising thing every two minutes at the school? cuhdear man. Dem cell companies aint mekkin enuff profit off we. Play you smart deyso den.

Exposed

I just love this story.

I'll give you the basic details. Woman is cheating on husband and is found out when her private cell phone listed in her maiden name was added to the household "bundle" so that all their services from Rogers cable came on one bill. The husband was able to see her cell phone calls on the bill and figured out that she was cheating on him which her cheating partner readily admitted to the husband. Husband leaves marriage. The end.

Except its not. Woman is upset cause she thinks the Cell provider did her wrong by bundling her cell phone with the home stuff and is now suing them for about 1/2 million dollars. Actually to be honest I think she has a point and may win but still..........

Well well well aint she brazen though? I mean imagine she horning the poor man an get ketch and she vex now and want to sue the phone company. She aint have no shame though? Looka what the world come to when these sort a people can cheat an get on so and dont have no shame at all. Imagine that.

But I'm also looking at this from another perspective. If I'm working in marketing for one of the other rival cell providers like Telus or Bell this is gold, jerry gold. I mean lets face it those Rogers ads with the dude who cant get cell reception cause his carrier isnt Rogers and the other ones with the guy who cant get HD tv cause his cable isnt with Rogers are pretty good digs at the competition so here is their chance to get back at Rogers.

If I'm in marketing at Telus or Bell I'm signing ol cheating girl to a contract and building a series of ads around her and this situation. Something like "Bell at least we wont bundle your ish without your permission" or "Telus so you can always keep your downlow on the downlow." or "Bell cause ya husband dont need to know about ya outside man"

Trust me like I said the situation is gold, I got a whole campaign mapped out but I not giving it to them fa free on my blog. Is mad ya think I mad? No star if they want it call me an we cud work a ting but I doan want the wife find out. Oh shoot mi phone bundle I gine an switch to Bell or Telus. :-)

Limits

I may have mentioned it before but they want to have cell phone connectivity in the subway tunnels here. More minutes used, more money for big corporation coffers as maybe the last bastion resisting constant cell phone usage is destroyed. Oh well progress right and there is some benefit to having this option especially during delays! And who knows it may just turn out to be more extra background noise in the tunnels.

Still while on the bus ride home a few days ago as I inadvertently and rather unconsciously listened to a young lady's cell conversation as she seriously traced her baby fadda for not buying pampers I couldn't help but wonder about what other inappropriate conversations I'd be made privy to with this new cell phone plan.

I keep wondering about the limits between private and public these days where facebook status tells you that the Prince's girlfriend dumped him, questionable photos are a mainstay in online profiles and wholly inappropriate conversations occur in public places with people (of all ages) seemingly oblivious to the fact that they are sharing their life story and letting us know more about them than we should or really need to know.

Is it because this society allows us to believe that you are invisible, no one knows your name or that no one every really sees you? Or is it just that the line between public and private has blurred in this age of too much information? What does it all mean?

Is there a real benefit to knowing more? Is privacy dead? Is privacy no longer desirable?

I don't man, i don't know man, I don't know man, I don't know man, I don't know.

You talking to me?

"Good Morning!"

Those two innocuous words threw me for a loop this morning. They came from a man sitting adjacent to me on the subway as I rode in on my way to work.

In the three seconds it took for my bajan manners to kick in and respond likewise about 20 thoughts ran through my head.

Wait I kno he?

He cud be talking to me?

Wha um is he want now? I aint got nuh money ta give a fella! I aint care wha kinda sob story he got fa me.

Wait he is ona dem cult fellas dat gine try to start confusing me bout visiting he church? Cause fa right now I aint looking to follow nuh cults. Next ting I know dem tekkin all my salary an de Pastor tief off my wife to be he concubine an leff me by my one self. Actually wait that cud be a good ting, lemma hear wha he got to say an if de pastor lookin fa concubines.

He head bad? he aint look like he escape from Queen Street but still ya can neva tell dese days, he head cud be bad.

Wait was I was talkin to myself agin and he thought I was talking to he? I gotta stop talking and singing ta myself cause dis ting like it duz only attract mad people ya!

Chupse what um is bout me dat mek it look like I interested in conversation dis blessed morning. He cann see I got a newpaper an headphones on specifically cause I aint looking to listen or talk or hear from nuhbody this marning. chupse!

Wha I been in this country umpteen years and nuhbody neva say good morning ta me pun the train. He cann be Canadian!

Naa he want money I kno he want money, cud only be cause that is the only time a complete stranger will say morning to ya on the Train. yea dat is it.

And on and on it went in my head even after I had responded to his greeting and sat down and started reading the newspaper. I was wary. You would have thought the man had threatened me with a knife or something instead of offering me words of greeting.

As the trip started I kept glancing up, surreptitiously trying to take the measure of the man. He still looked sane, was dressed ok; plaid shirt, jeans, sneakers looked like a computer dude so maybe he didnt want my money and no he didnt try to say anything else to me for the duration of the trip so that ruled out the whole cult thing.

Strange indeed. He said Good morning to a stranger. My mind trys to wrap itself around that unfathomable concept. He didnt stare, he didnt push, he didnt plop himself down next to me almost crushing my leg, he didnt give me a wha you looking at mind ya business look, he didnt give me the unless thats the only seat left in this whole train I aint sitting next to you look. Instead he said good morning.

Whoa! Head rush!

Whats that all about? Doesn't he know that in the subway we try to interact as little as possible with our fellow man? Its bad enough we're stuck on this damn infernal, prone to random break downs, vehicle some for 1/2 hr or more or that we might inadvertently have our space violated, get crushed or accidentally brush against another person we didnt want to touch. Like the white woman who kicked me last week and gave me what I can only interpret as a 'dont touch me you dirty n****' look when my foot accidentally touched hers as I moved to let someone pass. And yes I had said sorry. Dry up ol hag! Ya feel I wanta play footsies wid de likes a you. Chupse!

Willingly inviting contact with a stranger? On the subway? You mad or drunk boy? No sar. What gives?

I mean as an aside funny thing about it is that we attempt to be islands in this sea of people. Independent, not interacting, ignoring, pretending to sleep, pretending to read, staring into space, trying not to let our eyes linger too long on one spot or person, listening to our music to drown out the others but yet a lot of these folk acting as islands will pull out that cell phone and have a totally and might I say loud as what not, what should be private conversation in the midst of a complete bunch of strangers. I still haven't figured that one out yet though. Trying to be innocuous, blend in, not gain attention, no touch anyone yet have the most personal of conversations in a crowded train? Hmmm. Must be a they are strangers so who cares if they hear what I'm saying they don't know me thing. Guess that can work in a big city but I may never really figure that one out.

Anyway I kept my eye on dude until he got off at Woodbine. In the end I just figured although he showed no other outwards signs of being a stranger to the city he definitely wasn't from around these parts. yep thats it, he's definitely a newbie. He couldn't be Torontonian.

Unless he mad.

Damn I still wish he was from the cult and had come to take my wife off as a concubine. Way to get a brothers hopes up. Chupse!

Cell phone debate

"Hol on let me answer mi cellular"
Cellular Phone - Bounty Killa

Recently I've been hearing and reading a bit about proposed bannings of cellphones in schools in various countries. There is some talk of it in Barbados at the moment after a recent incident where a student was killed for his phone and now there is some talk of it here in Toronto.

Frankly I'm surprised that this issue has taken so long to be put on the table as it was one of the first things I thought about when I realized the prevalence of cellphones especially amongst high school students. I can just imagine how annoying it must be currently to be a teacher and continually be reminding students to turn off or turn down their phones in class etc. Talk about issues with attention span back in the days it was only paper planes and spit balls and the like that teachers had to deal with. Now on top of those they have to compete with text messages and the random, whistles, bells, song snippets and whatever passes for ring tones these days. So many distractions to the students. I think as a teacher that might drive me postal.

Yes the new portable technology that we have at our finger tips is amazing. Cell phones, Ipods and other mp3 players, portable DVD players, Ps2s, laptops etc are great ........ when put to legitimate use. Still when one is in school is there the need for all of this stuff?

I remember back in my high school days, a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, at the advent of portable video games our school staff took what appeared to myself as a young student to be a draconian stance regarding those items. They were completely banned from the school premises. It didn't matter if you weren't playing with them or not if they were found in your possession you were in trouble. (I could tell you a story about me, that and detention but I have a certain image to uphold.)

OK so you cant really compare video games with cell phones which sometimes have a legitimate use but at the same time whats the big issue with banning cellphones from the classrooms and hallways of our schools?

Well the above linked article gives some opinions of staff, students and parents towards the proposed ban and if there is one thing that the article suggests to me its that human beings in general are getting more stupid by the minute. It makes one wonder if those fanciful back stories to sci-fi tales where the machines rise up and take over aren't as far fetched as they seem cause frankly technology is making us bleeping imbeciles!

I mean I understand keeping in touch with where the child is going to be after school but do you have to keep in touch during school hours too? Hear one parent talking about how she uses the cell phone to remind her children of appointments. So wait before cell phones children didn't have appointments too? You cant remind the children before they leave home? Chupse! The children don't got a memory that they cant remember something so for a couple of hours and you have to call them in class to remind them? In class the child should be focused on the teacher or doodling in a notebook or troubling some other child not dealing with parents on cell phones reminding them of things to do.

Then hear one child talking about she don't mind them banning them in the classrooms but they shouldn't ban phones in the hallway cause she uses them to find her friends at break. Again big chupse! So before cell phones how people used to find their friends? Ya didn't used to ask them where they were going to be at break or holler out their name to find them or use the eyesight or speech that God give you to ask somebody where them is? Cheese on bread!

I tell ya, we becoming too dependent on this technology business. It stunting we brain! It stifling we common sense!

And what got me is that when you think about it the parents of these kids should know better. I forgive the kids cause they grow up with the technology and they ain't know any better but the parents? They ain't grow up with no cellphones. Yes is a different society we live in with more dangers etc but still ain't no need for cellphones during class hours. Tell the child what he/she needs to do in the morning before they go off to school. Don't wait till they trying to get lil Arithmetic in dey head in Ms Jones class to confuse them about home business. Plan out what needs to be done and if ya forget deal with it the next day.

That took my thinking to another thought. Why do we need to be continually connected? Even in the adult world is it absolutely necessary for persons to know where you are at every moment of the day? Do we need to converse with persons who aren't around that much? You cant be in the car or walking for 10 minutes without checking in or dialing up or whatever?

Just a thought.

But back to the schools and the cellphones. I didn't even mention the dangers of kids taking naughty photos and videos with cellphones or using the Internet or text messaging to cheat. No man too much issues with this phone thing at school. Take it away from the classrooms. Its just an added distraction to the already short attention span of kids these days. Take it out! Dash way the cell phones at school during school hours. Ban dem!