Saturday, March 8, 2014

Less smart

I'll try to be gentle. You might already know this. But, as I would with an unpropitious, possibly embarrassing rip in your clothing, I thought I'd just, you know, tell you, just let you know. And if you say "I don't care. I am willing to bear whatever ignominy may or may not come with it." I accept your position on the matter. I mean no disrespect, that is, I bear you no disrespect outside of that which is inherent in the truth of the thing.

Clearly, you can see that I am doing a bit of careful dancing around this. I could end it all with one simple sentence, and just tell you. But I have played that telling sentence in my head and it sounds pretty bad. So I am trying to find a different way in.


Perhaps we could work up to it with alternate examples. What if, for instance, you were a heavy smoker. And let us say it is not common knowledge that smoking kills you. That second part is important. It would be mere annoyance if it were common knowledge. We must presume I am a Doctor, a student of the matter, seeing constant heart disease and cancers and so on before all this is widely known. "Uh," I say quietly "I know smoking, is, er, very compelling, but most of the time it stops allowing you to breathe air. And then I have to gas you up and cut chunks of your innards out of you."


"Hmmm. Thanks for letting me know Doc." You can think it all over now. You are now informed.

What say we move in just a wee bit closer.

"Hey, you know how occasionally you slug strangers, crash cars, throw up a lot, and wake up in jail? I'm just saying, um, I have sort of noticed a correlation between those things and the times where you think it would be fun to have six gin and tonics."

"Really?"

"Yep."

"Thanks for noticing. I'll think about it."

So, do you think that with all that everyone is ready? I want you to know this isn't directed at anyone in particular. It's not about you, exactly. It's more of a universal thing, like with the cigarettes, and it applies to anyone. Okay?

Okay.

Er, so, there are these times where you drop books off in passing at the front desk of the library even though it is not where they go. I can't stop you. You're not really paying attention to things. If you do engage with me you hear me but don't process half of what I'm saying. You get vague and your response time slows.  You misunderstand what I say, or take longer to grasp it.  You grow sort of clumsy, everything takes you a little longer than normal, and you lose your sense of humor. And all these things, this behavior, correlates to when your smart phone is in play. I'll sum it up with that direct statement I have been avoiding:  

When you are using your cell phone in any way, you become more stupid.  

Just, in case you didn't know. I thought you might want to know.

Do with it what you will.

1 comment:

  1. I, uh, wait, I'm on my phone, uh, but I had a comment, er, where was I? I g[e[p

    ReplyDelete

If you were wondering, yes, you should comment. Not only does it remind me that I must write in intelligible English because someone is actually reading what I write, but it is also a pleasure for me since I am interested in anything you have to say.

I respond to pretty much every comment. It's like a free personalized blog post!

One last detail: If you are commenting on a post more than two weeks old I have to go in and approve it. It's sort of a spam protection device. Also, rarely, a comment will go to spam on its own. Give either of those a day or two and your comment will show up on the blog.