I’m old enough to remember the advent of two of the most annoying pieces of electronics ever…
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The Bluetooth earpiece - which made everyone having a conversation look like they were either talking to themselves or possibly schizophrenic.
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Those god-awful push to talk walkie talkie type phones from mainly Nextel - which not only made you privy to the both parties conversation but had the freaking awfully loud and obnoxious beep in between switching parties talking. I wanted to strangle anyone using one in a restaurant.
I’m not sure that as a species we are capable of being present in the moment and not searching for that next hit of dopamine from a device with a screen. And Lord knows I’m as guilty as the next person.
I’ve had the Nextel beep as my SMS tone for almost 20 years now. Phone is usually on vibrate but the tone is there.
… I also have the “science is fun” song from Portal as my ringtone because it starts out with a noise that I can hear above the din and quickly gets really loud if I didn’t hear it. I had it as the Turret “hello?” sequence for a bit but that was super creepy.
