People are downright Rude!!!

Okay. So I am at the cardinal game last week, and they are starting up the home-half of the inning, with the top of the order up for the cardinals in a one-run game. And there is Joe-Shmoe standing up jabbering away on his cell-phone and blocking the view of the batters box for a whole section of fans. And he is totally oblivious to anyone but himself. We had to ask an usher to tell him to sit down, which he did without even looking up or interrupting even one second of his conversation.

This is just one example of how rude and disrespectful people have gotten in our culture today. And technologies have caused these behaviors to attain new levels of self-absorbancy. Is that a word?

Technologies have caused everything and everyone to be pauseable. We value convenience over connection. We are continuously connected but rarely get anyone’s full attention. I wonder if this growing lack of intimacy and depth of conversation is causing people to be less aware of the needs of others. And of course there is the issue with multitasking and the way it keeps us all distracted at ADD’ish levels.

Shakespeare once said that “we are consumed by that which we are nourished.” There is a lot of truth in that statement that relates to this topic. I believe that all the internet connections and technologies are NOT the ties that bind, but rather the TIES THAT PREOCCUPY.