I
AM male, not female, and that might have something to do with the fact that I
saw the baby and the phone before I saw the mother, in that recent cartoon by
Leunig that somehow became controversial.
Put
in simple terms, the mobile phone has become a scourge on society. Someday it
will be recognised universally as such. At first, when I started seeing it
everywhere, I looked on it with a sense of bemusement. ‘Is it really that
interesting that it commands so much attention?’. Instead of buying one and
wanting to find out, I decided I preferred to continue looking around me,
reading a book, thinking. Sorting things out in my brain, but especially
noticing things.
At
some stage, it occurred to me that there are lots of things you can do with a
phone. When I first saw everybody staring soullessly into the machine, I
thought they were merely looking at Instagram posts or texting a friend or
family member about the weather, or the food they recently ate, or about what
happened last night. Looking over people’s shoulders (yes I do like to observe
people and their behaviours), I have begun to realize there is a lot more to
mobile phones than this. I have seen people playing games, using it as an
application to find the whereabouts of some place, reading a book online, maybe
even looking at The Age.
This
has not, however, made me more interested in purchasing a phone or helped me
see it as less dangerous or more benign. On the contrary, I can see how the
myriad uses of it can trap people more and more into ignoring other people and
their surroundings and act zombie-like for the duration of the day. Just walk
in the city or catch a train or bus. They are there as extensions of nearly
every persons’ hands. And we accept it as normal.
I
welcome Leunig’s perspective. He often recognises awful aspects of society
before others, or sometimes it is just putting into print what many of us
already know. Yes, we are old-fashioned types. Perhaps types that would like to
see mobile phones done away with. Or at least a mobile phone free day when
every adult and child agrees to do something great for humanity and stores
their phone away for 24 hours. I want to be able to catch a bus and have the
experience I used to have. People reading or observing their surroundings,
something that seems so lame but feels so fresh. And people crossing the road
and walking along paths looking straight ahead, conversing in the car and in
restaurants and in the schoolyard. And especially mothers and fathers pushing
prams and conversing with their kids.
We
have lost the battle. It feels permanent. When old people like me die out it
won’t look odd to anyone. People will forget the integrating society. Just like
we have all forgotten life before TV. It’s just that you have never carried a
TV around with you, oblivious to all else, whilst you walk down the street.
