Youth and Modern Technology

I had to drive to the shop in Garraways, which is in  Coffee Hall, the next grid square to Eaglestone, to buy a stamp at the Post Office which is within the 'One-Stop' shop. I followed this youth in who wore these enormous headphones over his ears. Do youths realise how ridiculous they look walking around with such things on their ears? I thought you could get really neat 'ear-buds,' which you use with your iPod or other M.P.3 player which don't look so obtrusive. I should know, as I have my own iPod, although not the latest model.  I don't use it much. But I don't walk around with it on. What worries me most about walking around with those things over your ears, how do they hear what's going on around them? There's the possibility of not hearing a vehicle coming when you cross the road and getting run over. Even worse, is seeing a youth riding around on a bicycle with those things on his ears. Not just the danger of not hearing traffic, but the possibility of getting the cable caught in the workings of the bicycle they are riding, the chain mechanism, the handlebars or whatever. Then I was shocked to discover that the price of a first-class stamp is 63p. We very rarely have a need for postage stamps. We use email a lot, but this was to stick on the envelope of a Father's Day card for Carol's dad. It has to get to Bournemouth before next Sunday which is Father's Day.

It's not just headphones that are a danger. How many people have I seen who walk around whilst they are fiddling with their mobile phone? Texting or doing something or other as they walk along, and most certainly not aware of the world around them. The distinct possibility of not concentrating on the world around them, stepping off the kerb and into the path of a vehicle and getting knocked over. How ridiculous is that? Worse still, people having conversations on their mobile phone while at the same time DRIVING THEIR CAR! it's illegal, but people still do it. When we were driving up the M1 the other week we came across this lorry which we tried to pass. It was weaving all over the place, in the middle lane, but it didn't seem safe to overtake. When we eventually drove past it was clear that the driver was texting on his mobile. How on earth can you possibly think it's safe to do such a thing? One small slip and you'd cause a very nasty pile-up. Can't people wait until they are stationary before using their mobiles? It's a pity that the Police don't catch these people before they cause mayhem.

Sun Rots People's Brains

Well, the headline could refer, after second thoughts, to a well-known tabloid, but it doesn't actually have any connection, but after second thoughts . . . Better be careful, or I could get sued.

I had to nip to the shops to buy one or two things. On the way this man shot out of a side-road on a bicycle, with earphones stuck into each ear, so I wonder he could hear what was going on around him, or the cord didn't get caught in the bicycle's mechanism. Further along a young girl was dawdling along the road, almost in the gutter, at the same time she was texting on her mobile. You hear of people getting knocked over by cars whilst in the process of texting. There was a video shown on television the other day, no doubt it is on YouTube, or someone walking through a shopping centre somewhere or other, and not exactly paying attention to the world around her, and ending up in a fountain, or did she fall down an open manhole? I can't remember which. All I am saying is, the warm weather seems to make people's brains turn to mush. Not only that, but people's sense of style goes out of the window- and it's mostly men who dress in the most awful clothes, shorts and sandals, with horrible socks and even worse T-shirts. Then a woman, pushing a child in a buggy walked out into the road without looking where she was going, and almost got knocked over. How that child survives beyond it's 5th birthday I'll never know.