Song about mobile phones.

Subject: Song about mobile phones.
From: The Shambles
Date: 19 May 00 - 02:42 PM

When I lived in London, I got used to sitting next to and opposite people in trains and not speaking. On my last visit, I was amazed to find trains full of people talking, but still not to each other.

The Art Of Conversation

Now I walk the streets of the city
I've never felt so alone
Everybody's talking, yes
But only on the phone
Now everybody's talking it seems
And it's good to see
The art of conversation's not dead
But they ain't talking to me

I heard a friendly voice saying "hello"
I looked to find someone I know
I turned to meet the eyes of a stranger
Who carried on talking, as they watched me go
Don't know what the phones may do to your brain
Know what they do to mine and I'm trying to explain
Not sure if you're in any danger
But they're slowly driving me insane

Now I walk the streets of the city
I've never felt so alone
Everybody's talking, yes
But only on the phone
Now everybody's talking it seems
And it's good to see
The art of conversation's not dead
But they ain't talking to me

All of these things happen so fast
Just a passing craze or will it last?
Is this what the future is bringing?
Is talking face to face a thing of the past?
Are you worried like me or do you think it's fine
To hear all of this talking, all of the time
For even now, I can hear a mobile ringing
Please excuse me….. I think it's mine

Now I walk the streets of the city
I've never felt so alone
Everybody's talking, yes
But only on the phone
Now everybody's talking it seems
And it's so good to see
The art of conversation's not dead
But they ain't talking to me

Roger Gall 2000.

Subject: RE: Song about mobile phones.
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 19 May 00 - 02:47 PM

Good!

Mind, half the time I think they are talking to themselves, and the phone gives them the cover to do it without people thinking they are crazy.

Subject: RE: Song about mobile phones.
From: jeffp
Date: 19 May 00 - 02:51 PM

That reminds me of a theory I heard years ago about the crazies you see on city streets having animated conversations with nobody. Actually, they communicate on a wavelength known only to them. So, when you see a shabbily dressed person jabbering away in Washington, DC, there is actually another similarly dressed person in New York City holding up the other end of the conversation.

Subject: RE: Song about mobile phones.
From: MMario
Date: 19 May 00 - 03:20 PM

And they are probably related to me. My family is well known for its hyper-dimensional-ganglionic connections. We share a single brain cell between 17 people....

Subject: RE: Song about mobile phones.
From: The Shambles
Date: 20 May 00 - 03:13 PM

I think in the early days, people used to speak on mobile phones as much for the benifit of the public, as to communicate to who they were speaking to on the other end.

Now it seems as if 'the public', do not exist at all.

Subject: RE: Song about mobile phones.
From: Barbara
Date: 20 May 00 - 03:30 PM

My first encounter with mobile phone invisibility -- the ability of the MP to shield and isolate the user from all those other people in a 3 foot range to whom the caller is NOT speaking -- occurred in a two stall women's bathroom in a restaurant. The woman in the next stall asked me quite clearly if they had installed the carpet yet. I said, "I beg your pardon?" She said, "They were supposed to come this afternoon, and you know Mother's going to have a shit fit if it isn't done by Friday."
I said, "I beg your pardon, are you talking to me?", a question she never bothered to answer. She simply ignored me and continued her conversation. It was bizarre.
The last time I was in downtown Portland (OR) -- about a week ago, it seemed like one in ten of the pedestrians were talking on their cellphones.
If this is the future, I don't think I like it.

Subject: RE: Song about mobile phones.
From: The Shambles
Date: 23 May 00 - 07:05 PM

Well, I don't think i like it much either but I suspect it is the future and that it will become even worse.

Even Mobile Mudcatting?

Is it just the US and the UK or is it the same everywhere?

Subject: RE: Song about mobile phones.
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 23 May 00 - 07:27 PM

Remember when cigarettes were as safe as mobile phones are? And asbestos paste was used to fix screws in outsize holes in walls?

"Go boil your head" has a new weight of meaning behind it now doesn't it?