Google's gift: Free WiFi in 47 airports 

In a related story, this guy thinks airports and retail stores should already be providing free Wi-Fi service.  

And I could NOT agree more.

In a related story , the third American pilot in 13 months was arrested for being drunk on duty at London's Heathrow Airport and thrown in jail.

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By the way, as much as I like airports that offer free wireless, I'm not convinced it's actually the best thing for the human race. I think we should be encouraging people to interact with each other instead of burying themselves in their goddamn laptops and refusing to utter a syllable to each other. Easy access to connectivity is driving people apart, farther into their own private universes, not bringing them together.

It shouldn't be considered rude to say "hi" to the person sitting next to you, but it's fast becoming so. That's not only sad, it's scary. I'm sick of the dirty looks I get when I'm just looking for a little human connection.

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Nonstop - I ranted about this for awhile now, and it includes cell phones as well.

Over a decade ago when I was last in college, I remember the days when you actually talked to people when you got out of class. Now, watch people when they get out of class. They immediately turn on their stupid cell phone.

Lame.

Cell phones != face to face human interaction. It's funny, this younger generation is socially retarded and it's due to a combination of cell phones and the internet.

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Forcing people to be social will get you the very same results as you are already getting, though Nonstop..

As far as this younger generation being socially handicapped, I'd have to disagree. Well, mainly to the reasoning behind it. Yes, the internet/cell phone era helps, but they use that stuff because, in my honest opinion, they are uninspired. Look, you have kids that want to have fun. They look at their parents, and see two people spending their LIVES at work, trying to pay the bills. Why do you think video games are so popular (even among adults)? Why do we see such a huge population of college/university students partying so much?

We have a generation of people who work their tails off, and when they are home, sit around the boob-tube. The generation just below that sees it, and thinks, 'how boring.. I don't want to live life that way.' And they don't. I know, because I'm apart of that generation.. along with my younger sisters, who are more enveloped with that mindset.

It's almost like the Matrix.. Generation Y looks at generation X and sees how they are all plugged in. Given the choice between the red pill and the blue pill.. They choose the pill that doesn't have them being plugged in. And the generation X looks at Y and says, "Lazy. Socially inept. Unintelligent. etc. etc."

No. We are just uninspired. We don't want your life. We don't want to watch people on TV live an adventure. We want to have an adventure our own.

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Forcing people? How saying "Hi" with a warm smile forcing people to be social? If they don't want to respond, they don't have to. That's not my point. My point is it's ridiculous that it's become rude in many places to simply be a warm and friendly person. Because everyone insists on living in their own little shells.

I was in the campus coffee shop the other day. I saw a girl sitting on a chair, immersed in a crossword puzzle book, with headphones in her ears, and texting in between letters. At least three layers of insulation warning everyone from talking to her. Walking between classes, I see people with headphones in their ears, texting or talking on the phone.

It just feels hostile and lonely. I'm sorry I can't go to your keggers every night, but that seems to be the only place to meet people these days.

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I didn't mean to imply that saying 'Hi' was forcing people. I was referring to your comment;

Not that encouragement would be forceful, but I bet there'll be more than a few people that would interpret it as forceful.

I agree, that people are re-donk-ulous. Have you ever ridden in an elevator more than 3 stories and watch the other people? If everyone is sober, everyone is standing there like zombies staring up at the numbers. I like to jump in an elevator and instead of facing the doors, I face everyone else. And talk to them. It's hilarious watching them squirm. It's not like I'll ever see them again, so I don't care. And if I do.. Again, I don't care.

I guess my point here is, if you want to 'encourage' socialism (haha!) with people, then join me in being 'THAT guy'. It's the only way to get people out of their shells.



Yeah, I can imagine it.. I see it every day (well, almost every day) as well. Typically, if someone is like that in public, they are probably not the type of friend I want anyway, so I move on. Being at a school can make that hard, I bet, though.

I feel for ya, man.

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I dunno.

Who are they texting? Who are they surfing the net with? It isn't all solipsism. How much of it is a function of the social network simply not being synchronous with the physical space they happen to be occupying?

A few years ago the college I teach at moved from 10 minutes between class periods to 15. As a result (since I often teach two classes back to back, by preference), I get to observe students inbetween classes a lot. And I've repeatedly been struck by how much more they were engaged with each other (despite the occasional cell phone ringing) than I remember being when I was a student.

Now, that could be because I was shy/anti-social/etc when I was a student, and so I'm projecting my memories on my classmates back in the day. But compared to where I was at 18-22, these students are socially very much engaged.

Also, part of it may be a consequnece of the multitasking people seem to live by now. When you try to converse with someone, you aren't just interrupting one thing that they already have their attention on; you're interrupting several at once.

I've always hated people asking me questions while I'm reading, at least if I'm fully engaged with the reading. But when I'm sitting at my desk in one of my rare productive moments, I'm balancing my attention between six firefox windows, many of them multi-tabbed, a couple text files, three or four mindmaps, and probably email on another screen. But I'm claustrophobic, so I always keep my door open; I can't retreat into a cave.
I need white noise or something. But when someone knocks on the door or stops at the table where I'm doing all this....I have to interrupt all that flow.

Not saying everyone texting/listening to the ipod is me. God forbid.

But I'm also not convinced they're all that anti-social/a-social/etc either. Its just that, of the 3000 or whatever messages they encounter every day, mine or yours just aren't going to be up on the priority list as high as we'd like.

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Phatic communion, Non. Add it to the thesaurus, lol.

Knew this had to be worth a look up...

"Phatic communication, or small talk, is an important social lubricant. In the words of Erving Goffman, 'The gestures which we sometimes call empty are perhaps in fact the fullest things of all.'"
(Diana Boxer, Applying Sociolinguistics, John Benjamins, 2002)

The problem is one of lubrication.

p.s. In other words, the reason I never get any can be traced to my hatred of small talk.

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