Palm Piloted

Last night I was watching Sleepless in Seattle. I haven't seen the movie in years but I'm a sucker for rom-coms. (Although I've never really gotten to the point where I understand Affair to Remember. I mean, I get it but, really, she has to get hit by a car?)

But the scene that sticks in my mind from last night features Tom Hanks and Rob Reiner sitting at a counter in a bar having a beer and eating lunch. Occasionally you can hear the sound of a phone ringing. A real phone. Watching that scene it occurred to me it's a scene which has lost relevance: This could never happen today because, in real life, our two guys sitting together at the bar would be too distracted by their cell phones, other peoples cell phones, and an environment that, more often than not, includes large flat screen TVs hung at 6 foot intervals.  Worse still, it's entirely likely that two guys might not get together to gab at lunch in the first place because they can just as easily text, talk, and play their lunch hour away-- all in the privacy of the palm of their hand. Why have a face to face when you can text? Why talk when you can Google?

I guess when the Palm Pilot came out we really didn't understand what it was that would be piloted. Turns out it's us. Slaves to the rise of our own devices.