Deterioration by Supplantation Type 2

I don’t know if the second type of earbudding is better or worse. Half of me thinks worse because at least with the phone ear buds, someone is getting through to you. With music you’re completely in your own private sphere. But the other half of me wants to think it’s better because this is the one I do.

I didn’t always. I didn’t when I first came to Paris. But I am one of those people who constantly looks around at things and people, and you can’t look at people in Paris. Making eye contact gets you into trouble. So I started listening to music when I’d walk places, and I’d sort of zone out a bit. Or at least look less approachable.

But really, does the rest of the world have the same attention problems I do? It’s a bit hard to believe the rest of my generation also has the same rotten luck of making eye contact with the wrong people. (I nearly got chased by a homeless man yesterday!! I accidently made eye contact with him as I was passing, but I was passing, and so I don’t know maybe he felt slighted or something.)

Maybe my generation has a greater appreciation for music. Although the music that’s popular today makes that seem a bit implausible too.

Is it that we have a need to be constantly entertained? That’s not too far from it I think, and maybe I’m alright with that but it scares me to think where that might lead. Can we (generally, of course) not be alone with our own thoughts? Do we have enough thoughts to be alone with?

When I was in middle school, my language teacher would make us sit in silence for ten minutes at the beginning of every class. Her theory, which she voiced often, was that if you didn’t have 10 minutes worth of personal thoughts you were doomed. To what, she never said.

Maybe the life of the perfect American consumer.