Monday, September 19, 2005

Cell Phone Wah-Wah




So here it is – the reason patrons are so hostile when we ask them to stop using their cell phones in the library – we are pulling the binkies right out of their mouths! This is my new theory. Not all cell phone users are like this, but a lot are – the ones we see using cell phones when they are sitting together in the restaurant. The terrific Zits cartoon about the movie theater full of teens who cannot enjoy the movie without IM-ing their friends incessantly. They are cocooning themselves in an electronic blanket where they do not have to deal with reality face-on. The cell phone, the IM, the I-Pod, the PDA and the Blackberry all form a matrix that is their interface with reality. The hostility we encounter when asking them to lose the cell phone is a symptom of a sub-rational nature of need we accidentally tripped over. We pulled the binky out of the mouth. Of course they cried bloody murder. The picture of the baby withe the binky is courtesy of :
www.harwigfamily.net/aidan firstmonth.htm
The crying baby is from:
forum.maidensfans.com/ crying-baby01_300_border.jpg
And the cell phone is from:
ehp.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2003/111-7/cellphone.jpg

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