问答题 I was visiting New York last week and noticed something I'd never thought I'd say about the city. Yes, nightlife is pretty much dead (and I'm in no way the first to notice that). But day life was also a little different. It was quieter.
As I looked across the throngs on the pavements, I began to see why. There were little white wires hanging down from their ears, or tucked into pockets, purses or jackets. The eyes were a little vacant. (81) Each was in his or her own musical world, walking to their soundtrack, stars in their own music video, almost oblivious to the world around them. These are the iPod people.
Even without the white wires you can tell who they are. (82) They walk down the street in their own MP3 cocoon bumping into others, deaf to small social cues, shutting out anyone not in their bubble.
(83) Every now and again some start unconsciously emitting strange tuneless squawks, like a badly tuned radio, and their fingers snap or their arms twitch to some strange soundless rhythm. When others say "Excuse me" there's no response. "Hi", ditto. It's strange to be among so many people and hear so little. Except that each one is hearing so much.
Yes, I might as well own up. I'm one of them. I witnessed the glazed New York looks through my own glazed pupils, my white wires peeping out of my ears. I joined the cult a few years ago; the sect of the little white box worshippers.
What was once an occasional musical diversion became a compulsive obsession? (84) And, like all addictive cults, it's spreading. Get on a subway and you're surrounded by a bunch of commuters staring into mid-space as if anaesthetized by technology. Don't ask, don't tell don't overhear don't observe. Just tune in and tune out. It wouldn't be so worrying if it weren't pint of something even bigger. Americans are beginning to narrow their live. (85) Technology has given us a universe for ourselves -- where the serendipity of meeting a new stranger, hearing a piece of music we would never choose for ourselves, an opinion that might force us to change our mind about something are all effectively banished. Society without the social, others who are chosen-- not met at random. Human beings have never lived this before.