iPod and the end of conversation

I am walking down a busy street, when I hear someone say “you jerk are coming in my way”. I turn around ready to do battle, only to be terribly disappointed to find that this lone man is busy talking on his mobile phone. I enter the local MacDonald’s and there is a couple with three kids. The man and his wife each engrossed in conversation, not with each other, but on their mobile phones.

Funny we talk so much to folks at a distance, without a word for those around us.

Can’t blame folks for this. There is so much you can do with your handheld devices that you have to prioritize your time. Do I plug in my earphones to hear music or a an audio download, or listen to the wife whining endlessly about household problems. Or do I pick up the BlackBerry and catch up with my email, or do I call up a friend about the car he wanted to sell, or the latest videos in the mall, or…….

The options are limitless. And Apple Computer Inc. just added to those possibilities of cutting out socializing by adding video games to its new line of iPod Nano devices. The new Nano, available in five colors, features a 2.5-inch, or 6.4-centimeter, screen for watching movies and playing games like a Sudoko program developed by Electronic Arts, said the International Herald Tribune in a report on Wednesday.

Can’t blame Apple for putting out attractive new products in the market. It is not the job of companies to worry about your wife and children and friends getting cut out of your new electronic life. The popular wisdom is that they have to be driven by the profit motive, even if that means us walking around wired with a variety of gadgets exchanging information with one another and with gadgets around the world on wireless technologies like Wi-Fi or cellular.

Time to tame the beast ? You will have to find the answer. I have got to run and watch this super movie I downloaded on my Nano, after I have grabbed it from my four-year old daughter. Get off the BlackBerry son, I am expecting a call !