a culture of one

We were out doing some shopping today and I noticed several people with earbuds in, listening to their iPod while they looked through the racks. This has been touched on before by Fallon's planners (here and here), and it seems a more and more common thing now. After originally being a little mystified by this anti-social behavior, I think I'm putting the earbuds in next time I'm shopping solo. The in-store music is generally awful, and why would we really want to talk to the store cashiers if all they're after is the upsell?

And along these same lines, I'm starting to despise the bluetooth-cell-phone-in-public crowd. I did a double-take several times today thinking someone was talking with me... they caught me off guard again and again. Maybe one day we'll all be walking around talking into our bluetooth things, with a roar of noise that sounds very social, but just the opposite is happening -- everyone is talking to someone miles away. We should make cards that are even more vicious for these folks.