Tendrils

After the Mobile University symposium, I couldn’t stop myself noticing the number portable devices (phones, PDAs, music players, etc) people carry with them nowadays. Everyone has something. Locking themselves away into separate worlds. It feels like the moment in a Dr Who episode when you look around and realise that everyone surrounding our heroes who a few seconds ago seemed so normal actually has this weird tendril thing coming out of their noses. Or whatever.

I’ve just begun to notice the tendrils (a lot of them are white and stick in your ear).

This feeling was reinforced by a recently-repeated BBC 4 documentary on the desire so many of us have, to upgrade our gadgets to the latest possible technology. In “Upgrade Me” the poet and confessed technophile Simon Armitage tried to understand the allure of the upgrade.  But for me it just made all that technology seem doubly creepy. Don’t get me wrong – it was a well-made documentary - I just felt out-creeped by it.

Watch out for the tendrils.