Today was quite stressful, I had to do tons of shopping for various items of need for my upcoming Alaska trip. Hocking with the folks at Gander mountain who thought I was nuts for not bringing a .44 magnum in the woods and only bringing two long guns to Alaska caught my nerves. All I wanted was a sling for my shotgun, and a sling for my Moisin, nough said, but no everyone had to have a look at my antique rifle that was bought purely for shooting kedem wine bottles from 100 yards and nothing else. “Gotta load those rounds yourself eh”, “Wow M91/30 where’d ya get that?” Leave me alone I wanted to scream at the various camo clad hunters gearing up for deer season.
Then I had to sit in line at Wal-Mart while buying film, bungees and tie downs for my roof. Then I mosied on down to Wegmans to see what kind of grains they had for fast cooking. Finally I hit up Barnes and Nobles for The milepost- the bible for travel to the North.
6:30 arrived and I decided to hit up the dollar theater in Rochester. I have not been to a movie in 4 months, and just needed to wind down and forget about all the stress in thinking about driving and hiking 5000 miles away from home. Theres nothing like a movie to take your mind off all the chores of the day. Let non-reality take over and zone out, kind of like TV but more entertaining. Being enclosed in a theater away from- computers, phones, faxes, blackberry’s, and all that other greaqt stuff. To be left alone with the scene’s on screen.
In the packed theater I sat in a lone seat on the aisle. I noticed the lights dim and everyone turn their cell phones to silent. I noticed the man behind me text messaging someone, as if he could leave his phone for a couple of hours.
I sat their kind of bored watching the Davinca Code-= the book was way better- when all of the sudden the two men next to me started looking at their phones. I was infuriated, not because of the light emanating from the phone, but because these simple gestures zapped into the one place I wanted so much to leave, REALITY.
Of course we al have stories similar to this one or may be guilty of this cruel sin. But I am pissed at the cell phone culture. Yes I am one of those people that rarely turns on their phone and when on vacation keeps it off. I understand the addiction. My question is this- Would people rather talk on the phone then enjoy real life company?
I see two people together both talking on the phone or texting. I see people riding their bikes in the woods with headsets on, joggers, dog walkers, movie goers, people on dates. When will this madness end. The absolute last place where I want to see phones is 30 miles into the back country. BUT NO- while hiking in the Adirondacks two weeks ago three kids stood about their leanto trying to pick up a signal. If I was bigger and had balls I would have beat the hell out of them and threw their phones off the cliff.
I was at a Phil Lesh show recently and during sets people picked their phones up. What is the point of picking up your phone and telling the person you will call them later. Dude you are at a show for the music, not to talk to your friends.
It strikes me as odd that everyone keeps saying how much time they have and how much more convenient everything is. So why on earth can people just enjoy their time rather then always yapping away?
Sincerely a pissed off movie goer