CARS AND DEVICES

You remember, when the brats were little they used to fight over the ‘Walkman’ whilst in the back seat ignoring the wonders passing by.  Then we saw the rise and rise of technology ‘keep the kids quiet gizmos’ like TV in backrests relegating silence to the back seat whilst they still ignored the wonders passing by. 

Then, as they grew up, the poor sods developed a social enigma called Fear Of Missing Out [FOMO] which is a direct downside of the need to remain socially available 24/7 - at all costs.  They were now glued to minuscule screens on their ‘personal devices’ waiting, waiting, waiting rereading old messages whilst still ignoring, the wonders passing by.

That generation has grown up but are still glued to their minuscule screens hence the proliferation of ‘pop up’ screens on top of car dashboards keeping those same now grown up kids abreast of ‘everything’ on a second by second basis.  Emails, blue tooth, twitter, Instagram, face book and maybe even real life people actually calling.   The giant 12” screen has taken over and, the wonders still pass by.

Just look at any footpath and see the number of people with their activated ‘device’ front and centre whilst walking blind waiting for something to appear on their minuscule screens,  anything!

Addiction is obvious and it translates directly to new cars in that the cars ‘activated device’ pops up front and centre topside whilst the real world of wonders still continues to pass by.   The footpath dysfunction has been replaced by a road dysfunction.

The other day I jumped into my wife’s absolutely classically simple, immaculate  and beautiful 1988 MX5 in a feckless rage with the roof down, no radio [doesn’t work], no phone, tablet, computer, twitter, face book or indeed any connection on any device  of any kind.  I watched the wonders pass by.  I was back in the real world.

Do we need ‘connection’ 24/7?  No.