Mar 27, 2012

Living in the Future

"I'll tell you how I know. I read it in the papers...15 years ago. We're all driving rocket ships, and talking with our minds. And wearing turquoise jewelery, and standing in soup lines. We are standing in soup lines." - John Prine

I was gonna embed a video here. Of old John Prine singing his folksy tune about living in the future. But there ain't no video nowheres that I can find of him and that tune. A bunch of covers by a bunch of wannabes, but no originals anywhere. Gahbless ya, internets.

Even though Prine's words are dripping with sarcasm and social commentary, it's still a thought that dances through my reptilian brain every so often. We are living in the future, and everything sucks.  Just like Louis CK said, in a much funnier way on the Conan show once.

Our local, hated cable company has been recently expanding their WiFi network by adding to the number of hotspots they offer throughout the territory. I've only noticed it because I recently upgraded to an android phone.  And I keep it enabled for WiFi since I mostly work from home, and we have fast WiFi here. I was somewhere or another a few weeks ago, and I saw that there was WiFi available through one of their hotspots.  Cool. I registered, meaning that it would automatically switch to one of these hotspots in the future automatically if one was available. Excellent.

Except their WiFi network kinda sucks right now.  Yeah, the coverage is expanding all the time. But it's kinda slow. Maybe faster than surfing the web on 3G, but still slower than I'm used to.

So yeah, I sit there and complain while I'm trying to read about a Spring Training baseball game because the page takes an extra second or three to load.

And then I look around, and see everyone around me with their heads down.  Peering into their tablet or smartphone or what-not.  No one is talking. No one is making eye contact or looking at the scenery. And I've become one of them.

We are living in the future. Yeah...

8 comments:

Slyde said...

every time i have tried to use one of optimum's hotspots and logged it it has either worked like ass, or not worked at all.

thats why i love my iphone...

hello haha narf said...

creeps me out to see people not communicating with those RIGHT FUCKING NEXT TO THEM, but instead communicating with others in their phone. i've made a major effort to stop it. ain't easy.

sybil law said...

I think about that a lot. I am one of the rare people who doesn't have their phone up their ass, I guess, because I watch people and the complete lack of any real interaction whatsoever. It's downright depressing!

Verdant Earl said...

Slyde - The only time I ever had it work well was with my laptop at a train station for about a half-hour. Was loving it then.

Becky - I try to keep my phone in my pocket whenever I'm out. I do have it next to me all day long though. Even at night watching television. Bad habit.

Sybil - Good for you. A phone up the ass can be downright uncomfortable. Then there is that vibrate feature...

Heff said...

I stand by my original statement : "Cellphones are of the Devil".

Kevin McKeever said...

Yet another reason I'm reluctant to get a smartphone. To quote the Gospel of Ferris: Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

Paticus said...

I got a comment for you, but first I have to kill these egg stealing pigs, draw something and think of a seven letter word with no vowels...Oh, and watch the rangers highlights from last night.

marty mankins said...

I expected in the future the wifi signal would be everywhere and unlimited and full strength. Guess that''s still in the future.