It is the mark of the mobile-enhanced urban commuter: Holding one’s smart-phone to check email,
listen to music, play games, tweet or whatever else our electronic impulses
desire.
We are especially vulnerable in this realm of mobility; this
zone of ‘zoning out.’
Our use of gadgets takes its toll on our concentration; our focus
wanes which is why, for example, the e-cocktail of driving while texting can be
and is so deadly.
But there are moments of seeming ‘safety’ — Like in the case
of being a passenger, in a car, bus, plane or train.
What is the harm, one may ask, in a bit of mobile-based immersion
when the navigation systems are not yours to manage; when the wheel is not
yours to turn? The risk of harm, it so
happens is directly proportional to the perceived value of your mobile device.
I learned that lesson yesterday, while riding the train from
Manhattan to Brooklyn.
The young woman: Absorbed in her iPhone.
The young man [standing by the train doors]: Attentive to
the young woman’s iPhone. So attentive,
he tried to grab it from her just before the doors closed @ a station stop.
The phone flew in my direction; hitting the floor @ my
feet. Meanwhile, he ran like lightning.
Enter Emily Dickinson:
Within my reach!
I could have touched!
I might have chanced that way
. . . Too late for striving fingers
That passed, an hour ago!
somehow Julie you have made the iPhone thievery moment a sensual montage of human interaction... Emily shared lending her helpful hand... and I like it:)
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