The smartphone has supplanted property as the primary tool of gentrification, and tech companies have replaced banks as the corporate drivers of this antisocial movement.
I want to stand up and give this essay a standing ovation, particularly the part about noise pollution and its destruction of the city effort. As I get older, I find myself increasingly bothered and distracted by environmental noise, and having always been very much a city person myself (I have lived in the middle of 6 major cities in the last 30 years since leaving my small town), I have recently begun contemplating for the first time ever what it might be like to decamp to the suburbs, only because of the relative lack of noise. It's a depressing thought, not only about what it says about the state of cities, but I guess, in some way, my own aging process.
However, on the flip side of that, I teach doctoral psychology students, and medical students, at a university in my city, and when I walk into a classroom that is dead silent because every single student is just sitting there staring at their phone in isolation, it feels like the end of the world. I realize this is part of the point you are making - in this case it's not about noise, but about the colonization of our lives and attention by smartphones, and how they prevent us from interacting with each other. Same coin, different sides.
I'm not going to be the first to give mine up, but I really, really, really wish these damn things had never been invented.
I was out and about the other day and realized that every single person I saw walking a dog in my neighborhood (with one exception) was staring at a smartphone while walking; most of them had earbuds in, and while I can't say for certain, it didn't seem as though any of them were engaged in any sort of meaningful interaction with their dogs. They were just sort of plodding ahead like automatons in the midst of a routine process. I found it unsettling and, frankly, depressing, though I ascribed that latter feeling to just missing the walks I took with my dogs (both of whom are now gone.) I know it's a Romantic notion, but my daily walks with them really became an opportunity to shift focus from "the world out there" to "the world right here." Sure, we didn't necessarily enjoy the same things (they stuck there noses in a lot of places I wouldn't), but I was fascinated by watching them work through their environment with their very different sensory capabilities and interests. For someone who works with words, it was humbling to be reminded that the world communicates in many different ways.
Really great essay; thank you for sharing. I have SO many thoughts, actually, but I'm most immediately reminded of the phenomenon of landlords of mixed-use buildings asking for a wild amount of rent on the building's commercial spaces and being perfectly willing to let those spaces stay empty for years, creating real vacuums in the community, just because they might find someone who's willing to pay their exorbitant price someday. They are focused on creating wealth, not on being part of a city. (Yes, I'm thinking of Uptown here.)
Also really interested in the idea of smartphones as "tech colonizers." I do photography for fun and I've noticed over the last few years my reaction to being in the background of someone's smartphone photo/video has changed pretty dramatically. I put a lot of thought into the ethics of photographing other people and I just don't trust that most people in general, and especially people relying on their phone as a camera, have thought about it a whit. Anyway, this has resulted in me doing some fairly dramatic acrobatic routines that I'm sure may have made them think I was engaging in antisocial behavior. Even though I was trying to escape theirs!
I want to stand up and give this essay a standing ovation, particularly the part about noise pollution and its destruction of the city effort. As I get older, I find myself increasingly bothered and distracted by environmental noise, and having always been very much a city person myself (I have lived in the middle of 6 major cities in the last 30 years since leaving my small town), I have recently begun contemplating for the first time ever what it might be like to decamp to the suburbs, only because of the relative lack of noise. It's a depressing thought, not only about what it says about the state of cities, but I guess, in some way, my own aging process.
However, on the flip side of that, I teach doctoral psychology students, and medical students, at a university in my city, and when I walk into a classroom that is dead silent because every single student is just sitting there staring at their phone in isolation, it feels like the end of the world. I realize this is part of the point you are making - in this case it's not about noise, but about the colonization of our lives and attention by smartphones, and how they prevent us from interacting with each other. Same coin, different sides.
I'm not going to be the first to give mine up, but I really, really, really wish these damn things had never been invented.
I was out and about the other day and realized that every single person I saw walking a dog in my neighborhood (with one exception) was staring at a smartphone while walking; most of them had earbuds in, and while I can't say for certain, it didn't seem as though any of them were engaged in any sort of meaningful interaction with their dogs. They were just sort of plodding ahead like automatons in the midst of a routine process. I found it unsettling and, frankly, depressing, though I ascribed that latter feeling to just missing the walks I took with my dogs (both of whom are now gone.) I know it's a Romantic notion, but my daily walks with them really became an opportunity to shift focus from "the world out there" to "the world right here." Sure, we didn't necessarily enjoy the same things (they stuck there noses in a lot of places I wouldn't), but I was fascinated by watching them work through their environment with their very different sensory capabilities and interests. For someone who works with words, it was humbling to be reminded that the world communicates in many different ways.
So good! “I guess their joy must supersede my comfort” really touched a nerve.
Thank you this much needed essay
Really great essay; thank you for sharing. I have SO many thoughts, actually, but I'm most immediately reminded of the phenomenon of landlords of mixed-use buildings asking for a wild amount of rent on the building's commercial spaces and being perfectly willing to let those spaces stay empty for years, creating real vacuums in the community, just because they might find someone who's willing to pay their exorbitant price someday. They are focused on creating wealth, not on being part of a city. (Yes, I'm thinking of Uptown here.)
Also really interested in the idea of smartphones as "tech colonizers." I do photography for fun and I've noticed over the last few years my reaction to being in the background of someone's smartphone photo/video has changed pretty dramatically. I put a lot of thought into the ethics of photographing other people and I just don't trust that most people in general, and especially people relying on their phone as a camera, have thought about it a whit. Anyway, this has resulted in me doing some fairly dramatic acrobatic routines that I'm sure may have made them think I was engaging in antisocial behavior. Even though I was trying to escape theirs!