The Big Apple is home to countless subterranean Metro stations. Descend the stairs to any and you’ll behold another Wonder of the World - one node of a ‘mycelia mesh’ of iron rails which for a couple of bucks are capable of transporting subway cars to all points in this mega-city. Aside from being awestruck by the sheer complexity of this 24/7/365 functioning network, down there you never know what or who you’ll encounter.
Perhaps it’ll be an uber-talented busker who with a lucky break could easily be above ground entertaining on Broadway or in Carnegie Hall. If it’s not a performer you’re marveling at, there’s always the default of laying back to savor some prime people watching as hordes of all stripes disgorge from and then cram into the arriving cars.
But one thing you’ll rarely encounter is a rider with eyes not laser locked on a screen.
That’s why, while recently waiting for the 181st Street downtown A-train, I was captivated by a nattily dressed gent, who may not even own a phone, smart or otherwise, deeply engaged with his newspaper - yes, a news-PAPER!
OK you say, reading in subways is not deemed atypical for folks of a certain age, but how about the outlier sight of a commuting GenZer with one hand strap-hanging while reading a book in her other hand, and turning pages ! That’s precious.
Next time you make use of public transportation, glance at fellow travelers. It’s a safe bet almost all will be immersed in their screens. The phenomenon is universal, and not confined to NYC.
Where is this trend inexorably going, and what are the implications? I was shocked to get a glimpse of what that future might be. I first sensed it last fall grabbing some ‘chill time’ hiking around Walden Pond, a serene oasis in nearby Concord MA.
The Pond is where transcendentalist writer/philosopher Henry David Thoreau spent two years living a spartan life communing
with nature. That’s why my communing experience was shattered upon seeing the prominent sculpture of the poet ‘enhanced’ with a prop casting him in a ‘comment about our world’ pose.
Is Thoreau demonstrating who we’re becoming? Is it also conceivable that if he were here now he too would have sipped the Kool-aid and succumbed to the addition of the screen?
Another visionary, sculptor Federico Clapis, offered his answer. To get it I first had to travel part way around the world to the MoCo Museum in Amsterdam.
Federico’s answer is an ominous, ‘Yes’.
Mr. Clapis envisions a frightening endpoint of the constant attachment to our phone screens. He sees it resulting in our digital personae, not our human relationships and interpersonal skills, defining us and becoming dominant in the genes of our species.
He fears we will lose that which makes us warm-blooded, empathetic human beings. He fears we will become our screens. Federico may be on to something.
Perhaps he remembered an episode from his early Bible classes. It’s the story of Lot’s wife, who despite admonition looks the wrong way as she flees the destruction of Sodom & Gomorrah and is immediately turned into a pillar of salt, effectively stone.
If we continue on the current path of ‘looking the wrong way’, i.e., overdosing on screens, will we too turn into stone.
Will you?
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| images © David Greenfield |
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