黄继新在2005年1月23日的
思维的乐趣上写：
iPod被描绘为尊奉个体的技术，每个聆听者都与别人无关，听着自己的音乐，迷失在自己的世界里。"曼哈顿的大街上满是戴着白色耳机的人，自顾自地点着头，活像一个部落或秘密社团。" 一个博客写道。人们也许在享受着自己的生活音轨，但他们同时也在公共空间里制造了"缺席的在场" (absentpresence)，周遭的世界与他们并无关联。
我不知道他引用的原文是那一篇，在简单的
google之后，我找到这样一篇文章，不是写iPod，却有着更为惊人的发现：
Kenneth J. Gergen, forexample, has argued that one reason cell phonesallow a peculiar form of diversion in public spaces is that theyencourage “absent presence,” a state where“one is physically presentbut is absorbed by a technologically mediated world ofelsewhere.” Youcan witness examples of absent presence everywhere: people in line atthe bank or a retail store, phones to ear and deep into their ownconversations...
With all these accoutrements, it is not surprising that one contributorto a discussion list about wireless technology recently compared cellphones and BlackBerrys to “electronic pets.”
Certain public interactions carry with them certain unspoken rules ofbehavior...I’ve heard the details of recent real estatepurchases, job triumphs, and awful dates. (The only thing Ihaven’t heard is phone sex, but perhaps it is only a matterof time.) We are no longeroverhearing, which implies accidentally stumbling upon a situationwhere two people are talking in presumed privacy. Now we are all simplyhearing. The result is aworld where social space is overtaken by anonymous, unavoidablebackground noise...
Perhaps it is because cell phone users harbor illusionsaboutbeing alone or assume a degree of privacy that the circumstancesdon’t actually allow.Because cell phone talkers are not interacting with the world aroundthem, they come to believe that the world around them isn’treally there and surely shouldn’t intrude. And when the cellphone user commandeers the space by talking, he or she sends a veryclear message to others that they are powerless to insist on their ownuse of the space.
非常偶然，
kottke.org在昨天也有一篇文章与此类似：
Living in NYC, I'mwell-positioned to observe the effect that mobilephones and iPods have on public interaction, but I would guess that themain factor in people not talking to each other on the street as muchas they used to (in America at least) is culturalratherthan technological...Thedecreasing costs of travel have filledurban streets with non-locals."Don'ttalk to strangers" is theprevailing attitude...Livingin thesuburbs and heavy automobile usagehave madeAmericans unaccustomed to casual conversation with strangers...we'reout of practice...ourtime is reserved for working,sleeping, interacting with people wealready know (family, coworkers, friends, the gang at the bar), andgetting to and from places where we do those things as quickly aspossible.
If any technology is to blame, I'd choose the automobile, the suburb,and the television over the three Naughtonmentions.
我们谁都没有想到是这样一个结局：为了沟通，人类连线。但是连线之后，却同时发现自己与“周遭的世界毫无关联”。在ChristineRosen的文章中，她提到一种观点，认为手机并非提供了谈话(talk)的便利，而仅仅是一种信息交换。也许她的观点学术气味过于浓厚，而kottke则从另外的角度给出了对问题的解释：并非随身听和手机使得人类更加疏远，这样的距离已经在早先的社会趋势中埋下伏笔。
我在2004年买过一只MP3，但是后来出于种种原因卖掉了。原因之一是我觉得戴着耳机和人交谈是极为不尊重的。我和我的朋友都很忙，我们经常需要在路上交流观点，但是MP3的出现显然把这一路径封闭了。但是，这个原因并没有那么严重，它并非导致我卖掉MP3的根本原因，亦非直接原因。
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