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- Jan 31, 2005
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One "otherwise" insignificant incident got me thinking about how things really work in the world we are living in today...
It was just an ordinary day, I was returning home from downtown using Prague's metro, just like I do every day. So I was standing on the moving stairs, waiting for them to carry me underground to the station. People who are too lazy to walk(me for example) and rather be carried slowly by the moving stairs, stand on the right part of the stairway, making way for others who might be in a hurry or just hate to wait for the slowly moving stairs to carry them down and prefer to walk along the stairway while being carried(up or down) in the same time.
My mistake, I was standing on the left part of the stairway, blocking the way of the the people who wanted to pass. I realized my mistake when we were already halfway down and turned around to see if I was blocking the way to someone. I was suprised to see that behind me there were 6-7 people, standing, with the first person behind me being a 16-17 year old girl. Obviously, they were in a hurry to get downstairs since they had chosen the "left" pathway, but stopped behind me without asking me to make way. Before you think that it was because I am some king of scary big guy, I assure you that I am a normal person with average hight and weight, it was not because they were scared or anything. But it got me thinking..... Why didn't anyone of them just say something like "Excuse me" or even "Move you're in our way"? It was my mistake afterall that I was blocking their way.
So I moved my arse to the right where I was supposed to be standing in the first place and then they all started walking down the stairs, moving passed me. This confirmed the fact that I was, in fact, blocking their way.
It made me wonder as to why they chose to just wait behind me instead of letting me know that I was blocking the way. When I got downstairs, I started thinking.... They clearly chose not to communicate with me, there must have been some reason right?
Although I usually hate to philosophize situations, I don't know what got over me. Ok I'll get to my point. It might not make sense now but it will at the end of this story.
Nobody can refuse the fact that nowadays, we have all the world to our fingertips. We can find any information we need in just 30 sec through the net. We have countless communication solutions at our fingertips. You can talk to someone overseas through a chatroom, meet new people through instant messaging or in discussion forums, make free internet phonecalls to friends and relatives overseas using skype or other similar programs, long story short, thanks to today's technology we have eliminated every barrier and minimized all distances. And lets not forget mobile phones, the most popular communication method today and yet a few years back we have never heard of such thing as mobiles. While most of us grew up without having all this technology, it got so much in our lives today that we can't do without it. Mobiles and computers made life so much easier... But until now what I have mentioned was all pros for the communication technology. Are there any cons though?
I think that it is all leading the whole world to loneliness and isolation. 10 years back computers were not available to everybody and were not as popular as they are today. Comunication was not as easy either and the slow dial-up modems only made things worse. The same counts for most of today's everyday high-tech gadgets. Until that period, communication between people was more streight forward than today, when I wanted to talk to friends I just went to them. Today I would just call them on the mobile instead. When I wanted to meet a girl, I went ahead and asked her out in person. Today, I know numerous cases where someone really likes a person and wants to meet him, but is so afraid of rejection that will rather send her an sms or call first and if it works out all right "electronically", only then will he have the courage to meet her in person. An ex girlfriend of mine broke up with me with little explanations given and then one month later she sent me an email explaining her actions. How would she do if it 5 years earlier? If she felt guilty enough she would come and talk to me face to face. Modernisation though, has brought a solution for such embarassing situations and when you have something embarassing to say to someone, you don't have to see him in the eyes if you don't want to. You send an sms, or an email and it's all done.
My point is that today's technology, besides all the good that has to offer, is isolating us from oneanother, is interfering with our interhuman relationships and making us unconfortable to deal with our problems face to face. And I think that this is is exactly what happened in the metro. The 16 year old girl behind me, was too embarassed to talk to me, to ask me to step aside. I would understand that from her, but the man behind her didn't say anything either. Nobody complained and this drives me to conclude that this might not be a problem specific for the young generation, but is a more generalized situation affecting almost all age groups.
I hope I didn't bore you with this, it's just that it seemed like it would be worth posting my thoughts in the forum. Have you ever thought of it that way?
It was just an ordinary day, I was returning home from downtown using Prague's metro, just like I do every day. So I was standing on the moving stairs, waiting for them to carry me underground to the station. People who are too lazy to walk(me for example) and rather be carried slowly by the moving stairs, stand on the right part of the stairway, making way for others who might be in a hurry or just hate to wait for the slowly moving stairs to carry them down and prefer to walk along the stairway while being carried(up or down) in the same time.
My mistake, I was standing on the left part of the stairway, blocking the way of the the people who wanted to pass. I realized my mistake when we were already halfway down and turned around to see if I was blocking the way to someone. I was suprised to see that behind me there were 6-7 people, standing, with the first person behind me being a 16-17 year old girl. Obviously, they were in a hurry to get downstairs since they had chosen the "left" pathway, but stopped behind me without asking me to make way. Before you think that it was because I am some king of scary big guy, I assure you that I am a normal person with average hight and weight, it was not because they were scared or anything. But it got me thinking..... Why didn't anyone of them just say something like "Excuse me" or even "Move you're in our way"? It was my mistake afterall that I was blocking their way.
So I moved my arse to the right where I was supposed to be standing in the first place and then they all started walking down the stairs, moving passed me. This confirmed the fact that I was, in fact, blocking their way.
It made me wonder as to why they chose to just wait behind me instead of letting me know that I was blocking the way. When I got downstairs, I started thinking.... They clearly chose not to communicate with me, there must have been some reason right?
Although I usually hate to philosophize situations, I don't know what got over me. Ok I'll get to my point. It might not make sense now but it will at the end of this story.
Nobody can refuse the fact that nowadays, we have all the world to our fingertips. We can find any information we need in just 30 sec through the net. We have countless communication solutions at our fingertips. You can talk to someone overseas through a chatroom, meet new people through instant messaging or in discussion forums, make free internet phonecalls to friends and relatives overseas using skype or other similar programs, long story short, thanks to today's technology we have eliminated every barrier and minimized all distances. And lets not forget mobile phones, the most popular communication method today and yet a few years back we have never heard of such thing as mobiles. While most of us grew up without having all this technology, it got so much in our lives today that we can't do without it. Mobiles and computers made life so much easier... But until now what I have mentioned was all pros for the communication technology. Are there any cons though?
I think that it is all leading the whole world to loneliness and isolation. 10 years back computers were not available to everybody and were not as popular as they are today. Comunication was not as easy either and the slow dial-up modems only made things worse. The same counts for most of today's everyday high-tech gadgets. Until that period, communication between people was more streight forward than today, when I wanted to talk to friends I just went to them. Today I would just call them on the mobile instead. When I wanted to meet a girl, I went ahead and asked her out in person. Today, I know numerous cases where someone really likes a person and wants to meet him, but is so afraid of rejection that will rather send her an sms or call first and if it works out all right "electronically", only then will he have the courage to meet her in person. An ex girlfriend of mine broke up with me with little explanations given and then one month later she sent me an email explaining her actions. How would she do if it 5 years earlier? If she felt guilty enough she would come and talk to me face to face. Modernisation though, has brought a solution for such embarassing situations and when you have something embarassing to say to someone, you don't have to see him in the eyes if you don't want to. You send an sms, or an email and it's all done.
My point is that today's technology, besides all the good that has to offer, is isolating us from oneanother, is interfering with our interhuman relationships and making us unconfortable to deal with our problems face to face. And I think that this is is exactly what happened in the metro. The 16 year old girl behind me, was too embarassed to talk to me, to ask me to step aside. I would understand that from her, but the man behind her didn't say anything either. Nobody complained and this drives me to conclude that this might not be a problem specific for the young generation, but is a more generalized situation affecting almost all age groups.
I hope I didn't bore you with this, it's just that it seemed like it would be worth posting my thoughts in the forum. Have you ever thought of it that way?
