The Sounds Of The Times
To me, the sound of the 21st century is other people’s cell phone conversations. In the past, I’ve actually transcribed one side of conversations I hear on the bus. While it wasn’t as funny as say, the Monty Python “Size 12” bit it kept me amused while I commuted. Anyone who has to slog an hour or more each way back and forth to work can tell you that’s half the battle.
The content of a really entertaining conversation is almost like a good musical improvisation: it starts off with a familiar melody, goes off into an interesting diversion and returns to the familiar at the end. Inevitably, the opener is either “I’m on the bus” or “Waddayadoin?” The latter in particular makes me cringe because it is a completely valueless question. The answer is obvious – “I’m talking to you, idiot”.
If I’m lucky, the call will take an interesting turn from there before ending up with the familiar “OK, I’m going over the bridge, should be home in (whatever time)”. The interesting turn can be something like a mother describing the drunken exploits of her daughter that she discovered via investigation of her MySpace or Facebook page, a guy babbling obviously confidential business information in public, or someone badmouthing their coworkers in a particularly vitriolic manner. Just last night there was a goodie – a guy was in the midst of describing a lengthy road trip he had to take in incredibly boring detail to someone that I presume was his wife or girlfriend when he cut himself off with “You’re blipping, my battery is going I’ll talk to you later”. He then clicked in another call, and it became quickly apparent that the person on the other line was another, ahem, female friend presumably unknown to the first.
You don’t get this kind of entertainment from TV, do you?
I’ve often wondered if this is somehow a manifestation of the unconscious desire of most people to be famous. Other times I wonder if people are just clueless and unable to use their “inside voice” while on a mobile phone.
Whichever position I take in any given moment, it also makes me wonder how things used to sound. You know, what did the urban world sound like, say, 50 years ago? Offices were probably much noisier, alive with the sound of typewriters thwacking away and phones constantly ringing (no e-mail presumably meant people had to actually talk to each other more). What did the streets sound like? Traffic probably wasn’t as bad but the old cars were probably noisier. Or were they? I know the buses were louder 25 years ago when I was in high school. The subway was almost certainly noisier since many cars lacked air conditioning which meant windows were left open so the rattling of the trains on the rails echoed off tunnel wall and ricocheted through the cars.
How about 100 years ago? If you stood in the middle of Times Square in 1908, what would you hear? The clattering of hooves? I suppose if you where there on Feb 12th, you would’ve heard the roar of automobile engines. I bet that sound turned heads in much the same way as the sound of a horse clopping up your driveway would turn yours in 2008 (unless of course you owned a horse). Then again, I wonder how much the average urban dweller doesn’t hear. Ever talk to a Manhattan apartment-dweller on the phone and hear a siren in the background? Make a comment like “What’s going on over there?” and you’ll probably confuse them, they don’t even hear the sirens anymore.
It’ll be interesting to see if over the next decade or so we all begin to develop the same kind of defensive deafness to the voices of strangers. Imagine a world of people trapped in compartments with strangers all ignoring each other and wirelessly reaching out to those familiar to them. What kind of environment will that create at work, at school, or on the road? If someone falls and calls for help, will they even be heard by those around them? Or will they have to call someone?
Ah, this is a little too dark for a Friday. Let's go out on a fun note.
The content of a really entertaining conversation is almost like a good musical improvisation: it starts off with a familiar melody, goes off into an interesting diversion and returns to the familiar at the end. Inevitably, the opener is either “I’m on the bus” or “Waddayadoin?” The latter in particular makes me cringe because it is a completely valueless question. The answer is obvious – “I’m talking to you, idiot”.
If I’m lucky, the call will take an interesting turn from there before ending up with the familiar “OK, I’m going over the bridge, should be home in (whatever time)”. The interesting turn can be something like a mother describing the drunken exploits of her daughter that she discovered via investigation of her MySpace or Facebook page, a guy babbling obviously confidential business information in public, or someone badmouthing their coworkers in a particularly vitriolic manner. Just last night there was a goodie – a guy was in the midst of describing a lengthy road trip he had to take in incredibly boring detail to someone that I presume was his wife or girlfriend when he cut himself off with “You’re blipping, my battery is going I’ll talk to you later”. He then clicked in another call, and it became quickly apparent that the person on the other line was another, ahem, female friend presumably unknown to the first.
You don’t get this kind of entertainment from TV, do you?
I’ve often wondered if this is somehow a manifestation of the unconscious desire of most people to be famous. Other times I wonder if people are just clueless and unable to use their “inside voice” while on a mobile phone.
Whichever position I take in any given moment, it also makes me wonder how things used to sound. You know, what did the urban world sound like, say, 50 years ago? Offices were probably much noisier, alive with the sound of typewriters thwacking away and phones constantly ringing (no e-mail presumably meant people had to actually talk to each other more). What did the streets sound like? Traffic probably wasn’t as bad but the old cars were probably noisier. Or were they? I know the buses were louder 25 years ago when I was in high school. The subway was almost certainly noisier since many cars lacked air conditioning which meant windows were left open so the rattling of the trains on the rails echoed off tunnel wall and ricocheted through the cars.
How about 100 years ago? If you stood in the middle of Times Square in 1908, what would you hear? The clattering of hooves? I suppose if you where there on Feb 12th, you would’ve heard the roar of automobile engines. I bet that sound turned heads in much the same way as the sound of a horse clopping up your driveway would turn yours in 2008 (unless of course you owned a horse). Then again, I wonder how much the average urban dweller doesn’t hear. Ever talk to a Manhattan apartment-dweller on the phone and hear a siren in the background? Make a comment like “What’s going on over there?” and you’ll probably confuse them, they don’t even hear the sirens anymore.
It’ll be interesting to see if over the next decade or so we all begin to develop the same kind of defensive deafness to the voices of strangers. Imagine a world of people trapped in compartments with strangers all ignoring each other and wirelessly reaching out to those familiar to them. What kind of environment will that create at work, at school, or on the road? If someone falls and calls for help, will they even be heard by those around them? Or will they have to call someone?
Ah, this is a little too dark for a Friday. Let's go out on a fun note.
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