As technology marches inevitably forward, it’s only natural that there will be some developments some people find unfortunate. There are a lot of people who think TiVo was created by evil forces, the iPod is the work of the devil (aka Steve Jobs), and HDTV is just a government conspiracy to get us all to buy larger TVs.
For me, the unfortunate development is Bluetooth earpieces for cell phones.
I’ll start with the bad. It’s strange and a little off-putting to see people walking around apparently talking to themselves, only to later reveal a large silver plastic bug in one of their ears. They take away one of the last cues we had that someone was talking on the phone, and that is the phone itself. That, my friends, freaks me out a bit.
On the plus side, though, they are gaudy. You laugh and think this is really a bad thing but hear me out. Average American Businessmen wear these things, right? That means we’re in the earliest stages of accepting that men will have , gaudy things in their ears – earrings, in other words. Once the Bluetooth earpiece morphs into an actual earring – and you know it will – men will have no problem wearing earrings.
I’m fine with that. It’s these ugly things in the interim that continue to freak me out.
Posted in Technology
Monica April 14, 2007, 6:05 pm
have you seen the second season of the latest Dr. Who? you’re not alone in thinking those things are creepy.
Merle April 14, 2007, 7:19 pm
Watch the cyberman episode of the new Doctor Who, and you’ll find yet another reason to be disturbed by those earpiece things.
I have occasionally thought about buying a fake one, just so I could wander around downtown and scream and rant into thin air. Imagine the potential of walking alongside someone who is holding a real conversation and screaming “no! don’t cut yourself! I’ll be there soon! calm down!!”. It would serve them right for having “private” conversations in a public area…
jk April 15, 2007, 2:20 am
You don’t wear an earring already?
I think they look kind of Vulcan. And ostentatious.