Are we tuning out, rather than tuning in?
12.07.06 - 02:14pm
When the Redwire DLX ipod compatible jeans were launched in Bangalore, India yesterday for the first time the director said that the jeans signal a new step in the integration of technology into ones lives as consumers today live through their gadgets, gizmos and technology.
“Live through” our gadgets?, gizmos?, and technology?, – is that what we do. The answer is pretty much yes. Think of how often you drown yourself in a cell phone conversation or turn your iPod volume up while walking in order to tune out the world around you. (It’s the “please don’t talk to me mode”) Now we even have products such as the Ear 3 that flash red when the volume is too loud, so we know when we’ve turned our headphones up to much! It would seem we are not only tuning out the world, but making darn sure we do a good job of it by tuning it out LOUDLY. We are also paying for it according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. About 22 million adults suffer permanent damage from loud noise.
On Monday, Nov. 20th a group of college students designated a 20 yard stretch of sidewalk as a “gadget-free zone” and asked people to turn off their cell phones and iPods for the duration of the walk. Surprisingly, most people seemed relieved to tune out from the digital world and actually have a real conversation with real live people. One college student said that she called her mom the first day of class and told her that she didn’t think she’d make any friends because no one wants to talk anymore.
A polling was commissioned by the American Speech-Language-Hearing-Association (ASHA) on the usage and loudness of iPods/MP3 players among Hispanics vs other groups. While the findings were higher for Hispanics it found that all adults and teens listen for long periods of time. It was reported that 92% of U.S. Hispanic adults report they listen for 30 minutes to one hour, one to four hours or four hours or more; for all adults, the figure is 84 percent. Four hours a day equates to 28 hrs. a week, 112 hrs. a month and 1,344 a year. All this equates to 56 full days a year listening to iPods. What could you do with 56 days (almost two months) and how many friends would you make if you actually spoke to people during this time?
We all love our gadgets and gizmos – frankly they’re fun and face it, it can be wonderful and needed on a hard day to tune out the world and lose ourselves in our favorite song. Yet, sometimes this tuning out can become such a habit that the simple reflex of speaking to a real person becomes foreign. When this happens we can start to live in a box of aloneness that is our own making. So perhaps, at least part of the time, we should think about turning them off or at least down and noticing the world that is right there in front of us. One never know what treasures, and fun, one may find.
Speak Your Peace