RECENT COMMENTS

Tuesday, November 25, 2003

mobile places

Humble apologies to whoever but I have misplaced the via for this link, but the other night was reading:
Disconnected Urbanism The cell phone has changed our sense of place more than faxes, computers, and e-mail.
The great offense of the cell phone in public is not the intrusion of its ring, although that can be infuriating when it interrupts a tranquil moment. It is the fact that even when the phone does not ring at all, and is being used quietly and discreetly, it renders a public place less public. It turns the boulevardier into a sequestered individual, the flaneur into a figure of privacy. And suddenly the meaning of the street as a public place has been hugely diminished

The next day I was sitting among the birdsong and throng of ducks and geese at the Boathouse when the Nokia tone chimed in, and a woman started a loud rather personal mobile conversation at the next table. Does it seem stranger because it's a monologue or because it's directed elsewhere?
Sorry about this morning. I was a bit cranky. Yeah I was just cranky. So I hope you don't think I'm...
meanwhile some of the birds were getting rather bold and one jumped onto the table and would not be deterred easily from walking close to pie.
They have either lost their sense of fear or their sense of place.

No comments: