Wednesday, August 31, 2005

The Unfathomable Weirdness of texting.

Hello, hello...Ever see that movie The Village of the Damned? It's based on an old John Wyndham book called The Midwich Cuckoos.

I can't remember the details, but all the children in a sleepy little English village have been replaced with blank eyed aliens who communicate through some collective consciousness... it's spooky.

And so you will have seen how kids have taken to texting? I have observed this strange phenomenon at first hand & I am forming some equally spooky conclusions.

First, just the plain odd - you might laugh to yourself for suggesting that the two kids sitting 6 feet away from each other at a social gathering, furiously texting away are contacting each other. But they probably are. And not just to each other, but who knows how many others who are not in the room & may in fact be at the other end of the country.

Then there are the two kids standing next to each other outdoors. Both texting away, but also speaking to each other. I'm not sure, but I think there are two modes of texting happening here. One is where each of them are texting separate kids, and then sharing what they have said & received. Many, many conversations happening at once, not including vocal interaction with other people (say adults) present.

The other possibility is the one that spooks me though - I think that sometimes they are texting to a list of people, including each other, and the recipients are texting their replies back to all as well.

There's this group collective conversation going on, and it's completely separated from what's happening in ther physical world around them. And who knows how powerful this collective consciousness might be, or get. Could it be harnessed for good? Or evil? Could we get enough kids together concentrating & levitate a dog on Magpie Lawn?

Should I stop paying the $10 per month & put an end to it all