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Things Lost to Connectivity

Last thing I want to be doing at the airport or at a concert or sporting event or whatever is finding a paper copy of things. I actually like the phone for that, keeps everything handy in one place. Though if you check in early for a flight and then check a bag at the airport, they give you the paper pash anyway, so it's a wash.
 
I give phone walkers a good shoulder check and tell them to pay attention to where they're walking. Absolutely infuriating.

If I'm walking on campus - and always on the right-hand side of the sidewalk like a civilized person - and a student engrossed in her/his phone is walking straight toward me, I just stop. No one has run into me yet, but they've come darn close, looking up when they're a couple of feet away.
 
We know most of our neighbors. Don't like all of them, particularly, but we know them. I've been talking with one neighbor for years about shutting down part of the street for a neighborhood block party. Maybe next spring we can work that out.
 
Well, there was a period where everything I tried to buy at the Publix across the street from my work with my debit card was initally declined, and I got a text asking if it was me who shelled out the $5.79 for a package of Laffy Taffy. So I had to click that yes, it was me, before trying again.

So anyone looking at me going through that ritual probably thought I was one of those people who couldn't tear himself away from his screen.
If I use Apple Pay at the big gas station at my exit, the transaction goes through but then my credit union freezes my debit card until I click on the app to tell them that yes it was a legitimate purchase. Every time.

I'm also none too fond of the notion that I need to call them every time I'm headed out of state and play Mother May I to have access to my own money. I get why they do it and I'm no Q-Anon conspiracy freak but that still doesn't set right with me. We are still a free country for the moment.
 
I use Apple Pay whenever I can, but it's my rewards credit card that's attached to it, not my debit card. Haven't run into that issue.
 
Scrolling through social media - particularly videos people post makes me wonder if anything is real anymore. Its all so boring. The fake videos, the fake outrage, the misinformation. All such a waste of time.
 
Walking outside the Peabody Hotel in Memphis six years ago after a Redbirds game, I told Gwen, "There are so many people not looking up from their phones, I am going to let someone run into me and fall backwards like I was taking a charge."

No more than 30 seconds later, got bumped and sold it like a Premier League injury. Scared the poor girl silly but suddenly everybody reacted and once I pronounced myself fine, I saw a major change in behavior, at least temporarily.

I laughed my ash off when we got back to the car.
 

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