Do you use your cell properly?

The author of the quotation below first describes attending a movie and the reliance on and use of technology that went on all around him in what should have been the quiet darkness.

Technology, after all, appears to be an ass. An ass carrying a load knows only the weight and not its worth. The ass never bothers whether it is carrying sandalwood or sand.

Technology is no way different. It does not know whether it is being used for ‘human good’ or ‘human pleasure’ or for ‘destruction’, including its own. It is, ultimately, the operator of the technology who has to use this ‘ass’ properly, including for finding the solution to his own suffering. (By Suresh Govindarajan excerpted from an article at Counterpoint .)

My friend and I also went to a movie. This is a description of our quiet night out with techo addicted multi-taskers who behaved like asses.

When we arrived and took our theatre seats we noticed all around us cell phones were beeping, ringtoning and vibrating. Folks were using blackberries, laptops and gameboys. We weren’t disturbed because the house lights had yet to be turned down but to our utter chagrin, when the lights went down and the movie began the distractions didn’t stop.

Laptops were still open, blackberries were still in use. LED thingees glowed everywhere all night long. Some were busy text messaging and others seemed to be checking their email. Some were playing hand held games. Others were taking “phone photos” of each other in the dark! One person to our left was describing the movie he wasn’t involved in by whispering bits of it into his cell phone. Another man one row down from us wearing a headset totally ignored the movie and proceeded to negotiate real estate deals with his voice rising and falling in rhythm with his own conversation, rather than with the on-screen dialogue.

Among these annoying movie-goers there were those so tuned into their portable technology and so desirous of pretending that they weren’t really where they were, that they were frequently dodging around knees in the aisles during their repeated comings and goings from the theatre.

The popcorn and candy bar seller, who waited on us in the lobby was operating a touch screen monitor, while conversing on a cell phone with the theatre manager, who was too lazy to walk out into the lobby and ask his question in person.

In the washroom while waiting in a line-up we could hear a woman chatting on a cell phone while peeing! She was in there a long time and when she came out of the “stinking” cubicle she did not wash her hands or her phone. But that was not the pièce de résistance.

When we finally approached our vehicle in the parking lot we noted two partly clad very unattractive people in the car next to ours. Maybe they had come for the late show but became one themselves. They had obviously been having sex but at present the woman was speaking into her pink cell phone, while her partner had taken his urgent matter into his own hands.

My friend was so embarassed that she fumbled the key control thingee, dropped it and had to bend over to retrieve it from under the car. This placed her shapely and very attractive ass right in line with the masturbator’ s face, which lit up like a Christmas tree on the most holy night of the year.

I could take no more. I completely cracked up, staggered to the boulevard and grasped a tree with one arm while holding my belly with other and howling with laughter. My friend straigthened up looking confused with the key thingee in hand, as the semi naked fat lady drove off in a huff while still speaking into her pink cell phone.

I wonder fellow bloggers: Do you use your “ass” properly?

(1) If your cell phone rang while you are using the toilet (or urinal) would you answer it?

(2) Where do you place your cell phone when you are having sex?

(3) If your cell phone rang while you were having sex (either alone or with another person) would you answer it?

(4) What’s the longest period of time in recent history that you have deliberately placed yourself been beyond the reach of technology?

Tags: blackberries, laptops, cell phones, ringtones, gameboys, technological addiction