Once my workday is finished and I’ve had my supper, I usually like to read. But some evenings I’m too tired for that, but not tired enough to go to bed, so I graze YouTube. All kinds of things come up in my feed there, and I’ve had a real education on such varied topics as massive construction projects, Biblical archaeology, and current events. One evening a video showed up about people behaving badly at airports, so I thought I’d watch.
Grazing YouTube
The setting was an airport in Punta Gorda, FL, just over on the west coast. The subject was an older man getting hauled away by police. HIs offense? First, he tried to board his flight with only his ticket. Clearly not a frequent flyer, he didn’t realize that he needed a boarding pass. That led to his first meltdown, and police were called. After calming down the airline informed him that they’d print a boarding pass for him for a $5 fee, or he could obtain one free of charge from the app. Downloading the app was just too much for him, so he tried to pay $5 cash, but of course no airline takes cash now. That led to the second meltdown, at which point the police hauled him away.
This video has stuck with me, because in some ways I sympathize with the man. It is pretty clear to me that this guy has always punched first and asked questions later. But still, ultimately the issue here is that technology and the world have moved on, and he hasn’t. And clearly this was by choice: it takes no effort to download an app, but that brief task was just a bridge too far. At some point he unconsciously decided to stop keeping up with the times. In this example, his response was to lash out at the world. FAFO, as the current expression goes: he did, and got himself hauled off to jail. (The sanitized version is: fool around and find out.)
Was it a Choice? Or did it just happen?
The Amish come to mind here, too. They are people who believe in a simple life, largely eschewing such modernity’s as electric lights. But unlike the man in Punta Gorda, they consciously chose to remain at a certain point of technological development, reasoning that anything more brings more potential problems than good. My Punta Gorda friend, I suspect, didn’t make such a conscious choice, but rather simply avoided new technological developments until he couldn’t.
Another vignette: my grandmother lived in Norfolk, VA, and for visits we’d go pick her up at LaGuardia in Queens. On one such occasion she recalled her conversation with a seatmate, during which she commented that when she was a young woman and wanted to go somewhere she hitched a horse up to a buggy. That led me to think of all the technological advancements I’ve seen in my own life. My folks always kept up with what’s new, but I was 14 when we first got color TV. Phones had dials and made calls. That’s all they did. There were no microwave ovens. You could actually change the oil in your own car – no auto computers. I used the Readers Guide to Periodical Literature at the library. And so forth.
I’ve come to realize that I am absolutely tethered to my iphone. I cannot perform my job duties without it. All websites which contain nonpublic client information are only accessed with a 3rd party authenticator, meaning I get a code on my phone. Email has almost become passe, with many people preferring texting. This is both a blessing and a curse: communications are instantaneous, with a record of the same. But they are also 24-hours, which means it is up to me to disengage myself to fully relax. I do get texts and emails at all hours, but it is up to me to erect some boundaries so that I can enjoy recreation – re-creation – to stay fresh and not burn out.
The poor man in Punta Gorda. I wonder exactly when he stopped moving forward? The thing is, standing still ultimately means going backward. I hope he didn’t have to stay in jail too long.
Meanwhile, Anthropic’s Claude is my new best friend.
