I refuse to get a Blackberry (or any other PDA like that) because I honestly believe that I wouldn’t be able to detach from it.  I’d be so addicted to it, checking e-mail and using up all my airtime on IMs, that I’d probably isolate myself from humanity.  Like my co-worker, who walked up to one of the building security people to ask him a question, all the while tapping away on her Treo and never making eye contact with him at all.  I almost felt like apologizing to the security guy for her afterwards.  She had no idea of what she was doing.

Every time I stop at a traffic light, I always look around; invariably, everyone in the cars around me is on their cell phones.  At the gym tonight, there were at least two people on their phones while they were using the elliptical trainers, blabbing away their innermost details in loud voices so everyone around could share in their conversations whether we wanted to or not.  So, in essence, they were also in their own little bubbles, isolated from humanity from their perspective — we were just sucked into their bubbles against our will. 

It’s a sign of disrespect.  It’s a sign of self-centeredness.  And I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve come wicked close to screaming “Hang up and [insert verb]!” — when the option is “hang up and drive,” I frequently do scream it in frustration at the other drivers being stupid because they’re not paying attention to what they’re supposed to be doing (that’s driving, for those of you who were having problems figuring that out).