A few days ago, I was on the train home and eavesdropping on a conversation. (Don’t look at me like that, you know you do it too!) A mid-50’s gentleman was discussing with a friend that he didn’t approve of mobile phones that were more than just phones, referring often to “that Apple phone”.

His argument was that gadgets like phones and handheld gaming systems were breaking society, making kids antisocial and emotionally incompetent.

As I was silently fuming and formulating my undiplomatic riposte (had I had the guts to barge into his conversation), perfectly on cue, the kids in the next set of seats, who clearly didn’t know each other, all simultaneously started asking questions, after one of them brought out “that Apple phone”. The mid-50’s technophobe sat, silently, watching teens who still didn’t know each other’s names pile up on top of one other to see the game the boy with the spiky hair had just downloaded. “Wow, what’s that one called? I’m grabbing that one too!”

It seemed poetic justice that the kids then exchanged IM names before each leaving the train at their respective station, completely unaware that they’d proven the grumpy man wrong in every way. Immensely satisfying, I must admit!

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 9th, 2009 at 2:54 pm and is filed under Community and social networks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.