As part of our continuing work with Facebook, I found myself headed to a 10:15 meeting up in the library this morning. From my home away from home in the Rider 2 building, the library is probably a 10-15 minute leisurely paced walk away. During the 10 month State College winter/ monsoon season, such a walk is generally depressing. But today was a beautiful not quite summer, not quite fall day - the kind that the Penn State admissions staff pays off Mother Nature to have for big tours. And I enjoyed my little walk up the hill to the fullest.
On my way onto campus, I came across a co-worker who was, no doubt, returning from an on campus meeting of his own. I saw him coming some ways away, and gave a preemptive nod and small smile - the non verbal equivalent of "whats shaking" like those hip cat teenagers would say. No response. Ah well... probably too far away. A little closer, and I try again. Slightly bigger smile, slightly more aggressive nod. Still nothing. By this point we're nearly next to each other. Time to act quickly.
"Hey [co-worker]" I said with a wave. No response. The time had passed. Burned.
I, of course, have nothing but love for my colleague. Because after all, he had been listening to some music, presumably on one of those crazy eye-pods. He hadnt heard me say hi, because he was rocking, or jamming, or jazzing, or breaking it down. Or maybe he just hates me. But ignorance is bliss so I'll blame it on the ipod =)
Up the hill I continued, just letting my eyes wander to the sites of campus. And inspired by my experience, I started keeping a little mental checklist of the things I saw.
People sleeping in the grass: 3
Squirrels eating a piece of pizza: 1
Jealous squirrels who wanted in on the action: 2
People who tried to push in on an out door, or out on an in door: 4
Groups of friends walking together: 3
People talking on cell phones: 17
People with headphones on: 26
Now I could very easily spin this into a post about how prevalent mobile technologies are becoming for students, and how tapping into those technologies as educators is critical and blah blah blah, you get the idea. But if you are reading this post (or this blog in general) the odds are you've long since been drinking that particular flavor of Kool-aid.
Instead. I'll go the opposite way, and ask how being "perpetually-plugged in" is really a good thing for our society?
When I was choosing an undergraduate university, one thing that stuck out to me about Penn State was that everyone seemed happy to be here. They call it Happy Valley for a reason. You'd walk by people and they'd smile at you, for no other reason than you were both alive... or maybe they were still drunk from the night before... its tough to say. It sounds like a very small town country boy thing to say, but it was true, and it made a huge impact on me when I visited and for the next 4 years as an undergraduate here.
There was one other stat I kept track of this morning on my little walk.
People who made eye contact with me: 2
It was sort of erie, passing probably a hundred or so people and just seeing a bunch of blank stairs... eyes hidden by sunglasses... ears filled with cell phones or headphones. Everyone in their own world, listening to their NPR podcasts, or Kayne West, or Fall Out Boys or some random one hit wonder that I'm getting too old to keep track of (how depressing). It didnt feel like Happy Valley, it felt like Manhattan with really fat squirrels. But we're all facebook friends so thats something...
Last night, my girlfriend, my dog and I were standing on the back porch. After 10 minutes, I was antsy. I needed my NCAA '08, my Seinfeld, my laptop and my central air conditioning. And while we're at it, I was one of those students who walked around listening to Snoop Dogg on my way to class. Talk about being a hypocrite.
Technology is a great thing - I wont dispute that with anyone. But has our society gone too far with it? Have we become so dependent on constant stimulation that we cant walk to the car without a podcast, or walk to class without finding out what our roommate (who we just saw 10 minutes ago) is doing? And everything keeps getting cheaper, and smaller, and faster, and smarter. Meep.
Tomorrow I'm sure I'll have forgotten all about this little rant of mine, and I'll be back to concocting the best way to help people learn algebra by playing Zelda. But during a 10 minute walk on a beautiful day, I just kept trying to figure out when everything become so important to our lives. When we stopped being able to live without our cell phone in our hand or our favorite podcast in our ear. When we stopped enjoying the view in favor of the hustle and bustle of constant stimulation from every conceivable medium? When did time became so precious that we stopped being able to just ... be? When did we stop being able to unplug? And what does this mean for the campus of Happy Valley 2017? What does it mean for our society as a whole?
500 facebook friends and we can't look at eachother as we pass on the street. Scary.
People always said that that digital natives have a hard time with self reflection. I think I finally understand...
Time to stop pontificating and plug back into the matrix. But I think tonight I'll leave the radio off on the way home from work.
Image from http://www.public.iastate.edu/~dgwalter/ipod.JPG
Actually, I think not acknowledging each other's presence is an IT pro, well, not tradition, but trend, that predates the prevalence of earphones. I'm particularly peeved when I look a person in the eyes and say "hello" and they pretend you're not there.
The other extreme is being obligated to say hello to every single person you pass on campus, which was the tradition at my college of around 600 students. That got to be a bit much sometimes.