As I wait for the shuttle before class I see between ten and fifteen people at my bus stop. No one is having a conversation with anyone. No one is making small talk, or talking about their day. Everyone is just so zombiefied with their ear plugs. All I see at the bus stop is a bunch zombies listening to the latest top 40 hits. It makes me. Whatever happened to a good conversation with someone? Unfortunately they just don’t exist anymore. And it gets worse.
Once I get on the shuttle and sit down I notice that there is roughly twenty five to thirty people on the bus. Probably around sixty percent of them have ear plugs in. What on earth is it that is so interesting on that little thing we call an IPOD?
I see someone who I want to talk to and ask her a question. I get nothing. Not a nod, or even a gesture. Who knows maybe she didn’t want to talk to me. I can’t be sure. So I try to talk to another person. He and I talk for a minute about the latest sports stories, and before I know it, I realize that I am having a full blown conversation with myself. People on my shuttle most likely were thinking “who is this crazy man talking to himself?” But then again no one pays any attention to anything anymore except for what is on his or her IPOD, IPAD etc…..
I get it. It is the tech savvy age. But whatever happened to a good old interpersonal conversation? Maybe I am making too big of deal about this. Maybe I need to become part of the ear plug epidemic. Either way, if anyone wants to have a conversation, I will be the guy without the ear plugs.