Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Chit Chat free zone


First and foremost, I love, love, love my IPod. In my opinion it's just as important as the running shoes I'm wearing...it makes my daily exercise regime a few points above tolerable. But, here's the problem.
I live in a "Leave it to Beaver" neighborhood. Nothing wrong with that, in fact many people from many other states have chosen to settle in our little piece of suburbia...it's a great place to live. There are lots of neighbors, dogs, a few kids, and great areas to take walks. Therein lies the problem. When I'm movin and groovin and shakin and bakin to Donna Summer, Madonna, Christina Aguilera, or whoever...I don't want to be bothered. I really just want to walk, but on the other hand I don't want to be rude to the neighbors around the area.
Lately, every morning when I walk I have been learning the fine art of reading lips while wearing the IPod. I can totally translate "hello" or "good morning" but it's the "how are you today?" or "great day for a walk" that totally throws me off and I feel like I have to unplug and say my few words of social kindness to those more slower walkers on the block that want to chit chat.
I can get over it but then I began to think...are we raising socially inept adults in our society as a result of the IPod and other personal music devices? Will the kids of today be taking "Social Skills 101" as adults because of overuse of "me" time? It's great to have your space, your time and music to yourself, but I think we need to keep ourselves open for using our social graces with other living, breathing people. I mean, what would you do if you happen to bump into Madonna on an early morning run?

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