Finally broke down and got a Bluetooth headset (and I have to admit that I also broke down and got an iPhone). It's great for doing phone interviews, especially when I'm waiting for a call and I need to start cooking dinner. But...I can't help feeling that I've let down the side by becoming one of those Bluetoothing idiots, roaring down the road, ranting and raving at folks as I drive, wandering around the house as I talk in front of people I'm not even remotely talking to (while I am talking remotely to other people)...
I'm fighting it.
I know the feeling. When I worked out my telephone setup a month or so ago following the shutdown the VOIP service I was using, I ended up with a old cell phone of my daughter's which is bluetooth capable. I don't really like it much, tend to go with the earphones, but I suspect I'll slowly slide into becoming one of "them."
ReplyDeleteHey, no offense big guy, but as someone who's closer to your kid's age then your age, let me say.... welcome to the information age.
ReplyDeleteSpare me! I was a librarian; we were ahead of the curve. I used online databases in 1984, I searched classified online databases in the Army in the mid-80s, I used CD-based data back in the 1980s, I first used e-mail in 1985.
ReplyDeleteI avoided the Blewtewf because of my first experience with one of those people (and she wasn't even wireless). I was in Manhattan in 1999, walking along 5th Avenue. A guy came toward me, talking rapidly and animatedly, and I recognized the patter of the schizophrenic from my days doing clinical librarianship (really: Google it) in the Psych Ward. Right behind him, about 30 feet back, came a woman, dressed in slick executive clothes (navy blue skirt-suit, I can still picture her), talking rapidly and animatedly, and she looked just like him...except she had a bead-and-bud hooked to her cell.
I didn't want to look like her. But...I've got the frickin' iPhone, I've already sold out. Nothing left to save. Bluetooth, here I am.
Welcome to the 21st Century, you stylish techno-fop. You did however increase your annoyance quotient by buying one of those iPhones, too. The better version comes out in 3 days; ya couldn't wait?
ReplyDeletePeople are gonna be afraid to approach you in a bar now,enthralled and entranced as you'll be with your new glowing play toy. I rememeber when we were just afraid of the girlish laugh....
I'm so pissed about the new iPhone...I didn't know the new ones were coming out!
ReplyDeleteOh noo.
ReplyDeleteAnd it's not an "information age" as much as it's a withdrawn, timid, reclusive -- dare I say anonymous? Age.
I was at a party the other night, sitting at a table "conversing" (remember that?) and I watched 3 people pick up their phones to check messages every 10 minutes or so -- at 7:30 on a Saturday night. There's no need for that much "information."
"I'm so pissed about the new iPhone..."
Yep. The brainwash is in the spin cycle.
Allow me to clarify: "I'm so pissed about the new iPhone..." because the model I just bought went down in price by $50 a week after I bought it.
ReplyDeleteThat's why I'm pissed. I'm perfectly happy with the year-old tech, I'd just rather have the fifty bucks!
"That's why I'm pissed. I'm perfectly happy with the year-old tech,"
ReplyDeleteSuuure, that's what you say now, just wait till that little micro-chip (planted thru that silly ear-piece) kicks in! ;-)
I've worked with so many techno-geeks in the past who just couldn't get enough of all the new gadgets, it's an addiction -- be careful my friend. It starts with cars and evolves to electronics!
oh man Lew I was going to recruit you as member of my Analog sleeper cell.
ReplyDeleteI'm not gonna lie, i want the new model, the brainwashing works.
ReplyDeleteI saw a t-shirt saying "Crazy...... or Bluetooth?"
ReplyDeleteExactly the syndrome you described with the pedestrian. Avoid being that kind of person at all costs.
This won't be the first time I have seen a man with beer in hand apparently talking to himself...
ReplyDeleteWe've just had one of those fancy crank wallphones installed at the brewery please give us a call for all of your home-use needs at: Chestnut 4-6301
ReplyDeleteA couple of years ago, while sitting in a deli having lunch, I observed the guy next to me talking on his bluetooth while eating a sandwich. It was disgusting, I had to get up and sit on the other side of the room.
ReplyDeletewhy does having a bluetooth make you more prone to 'roaring down the road and ranting'? don't think I'll notice a difference!
ReplyDeleteSmart-assed by my own wife. What's this world coming to?
ReplyDeleteLew, I think you can get a refund for the difference in price from Apple. They were doing that for the laptops, anyway -- heard a story on NPR this week.
ReplyDeleteDriving and talking to at all is a distraction but driving and talking on a phone is even more of a distraction. Reason-- because when a person is sitting next to you pregnant pauses or moments of silence are not only ok but expected. On a phone, they are not acceptable so one must "fill in" all the time with conversation which creates even more of a distraction from what one should be doing-- paying attention to the maniacs around you.
ReplyDelete"Smart-assed by my own wife. What's this world coming to?"
ReplyDelete???
That wasn't in your vows?
They were in mine.
Love, honor, and eye-roll. :-)
Welcome to the world of iPhones, Lew! We love ours. But I refuse to become a bluetooth idiot! I refuse, you can't make me, I won't do it!!
ReplyDeleteOf course I said the same thing about Apple computers and lately we've been eyeing (pun intended) iMacs and Macbook Pros! Oh, bother, the slippery slope...
does bluetooth work with a rotary phone????
ReplyDeletebluetooth sounds like a description of a wedding in alabama....
You are now officially a douche. Congratulations.
ReplyDeleteGive me a call on my cell, oh wait, I don't have a cell. Sometimes it is nice to be alone.
Okay, does everyone have it out of their system now?
ReplyDeleteJoel Stein wrote an article a couple of months ago about the Bluetooth ear-piece. He felt as if it was the coolest thing he had ever bought...until he saw himself wearing it in the mirror. He's never worn it since.
ReplyDeleteGeez, Lew, I wouldn't know the difference. You always seemed to be walking around talking to yourself.
ReplyDeleteThat's just because you weren't listening, Jim!
ReplyDeleteI think that it's not that bad as long as you aren't wearing the BlueTooth everywhere. If you have it on while you're taking a call, that's what it's for. But I know people who put them on to take the trash out.
ReplyDeleteNo worries, Bill. I haven't even had the thing on for two days. I'm driving out to Carlisle this afternoon, I'll take it then, but...yeah, I've seen those people. Not me!
ReplyDelete