WHAT IS EVERYONE TALKING ABOUT?

My cab driver almost hit someone tonight. He slammed on the breaks just in time as a lady, chatting away on her cell phone, stepped off the curb without looking.

She had the nerve to scream profanities at my driver. He did nothing wrong. I then, perhaps for the first time ever, looked (really looked) at the people walkng down the streets. Everyone was on their cell phone, or typing on their PDA, as they walked. It was like a march of the technology robots!

I have a cell phone and I have often chatted as I strolled down the street. However, I use my cell phone when necessary ... for directions, a meeting place/time, an emergency etc. It would be said by my friends that I shouldn't even bother having a cell phone because I never pick up calls and I never check voicemail on it. This is true. I like to have it in case I truly need it, but there is nothing less appealing to me than navigating the streets while chit-chatting about nothing. I can do that from home or not do it at all.

my question of the day is WHAT IS EVERYONE TALKING ABOUT? politics? the weather? the soaring EURO? and whatever it is they are talking about .... can't it wait until they aren't walking down the busy and loud street?

I quite like not being "reachable" all the time. Email is bad enough without throwing the constant reachability of a cell phone into the mix.

I guess, perhaps, I am more old-fashioned than the average person. I just think it is essential to keep an open eye AND an open ear to my surroundings.

If my driver had hit the woman absorbed in conversation, it would have been his fault regardless.