About This Electronic Age

 Someone made note of a man sitting by himself at a Starbuck's without either a laptop or a smartphone.  He just sat there and drank his coffee.  Now, I have to admit I COULD have been that man, but I'm never disconnected from my phone, even though my social use for it is very limited.  I use my phone for keeping up with current trends and events.  I often have felt too isolated without my phone.  But still that man could have been me.

No one goes to Starbuck's and sits alone without a laptop or smartphone and just  drinks coffee.  But this man did and others noticed.  How unusual is it not to see someone checking their phone every five seconds?  How can anyone exist without a smartphone these days?  Maybe he did what I often do and it was in his pocket closeby if he needed it.  He just wasn't using it.

I read recently that JP Morgan Chase fights off about 45 billion attacks on their system per day.  There are probably a billion people or more who would love to hack into their data base and steal from them.  But cyber security is a big deal these days with AI and autobots that do nothing but send codes to systems here in the US especially and try to break into systems.  

We are told there are vulnerabilities in our power grids and some security analysts say it's just a matter of time before the Chinese or some nefarious groups get and take control of any of our systems, whether it is power, water, banking, or top secret operations of our government.  Billion of billions attacks occur every day and JP Morgan Chas is just the tip of the iceberg.  

All out systems from big ones to small ones are constantly being attacked.  And trillions upon trillions of dollars are at risk.  But this is just the US.  All government systems the world over are under constant threats from outside control.  These threats come from smaller outliers like Somalia and Nigeria to big governments like India and especially China.  Where there is money to be made threats are out there.

Everyone it seems has access to computers and smartphones, which gets me back to the guy not using one of these doing nothing but sitting at a table in a Starbuck's and drinking coffee.  How weird is that?  The fact someone took notice to document this means that is pretty weird in this day and age.  But my thinking is that he just might be the most mentally sound of anyone.  He disconnected from the world.

I spend a lot of time alone smoking my pipe, but I'm hardly ever disconnected.  Except my wife often complains I don't see her texts.  My phone always makes noises, but most of those are banners about news items and the sounds are the same as text messages.  But the fact is I don't disconnect.  I'm not sure I want to.  I'm not active on social media as most are, but that is by choice.  I'm too neurotic for social media and my mental well-being depends on my being somewhat disconnected.

But too, I have this blog and I'm usually thinking several posts ahead and am constantly working on this.  I like to follow trends.  I often wish I could go to a coffee shop with a pipe as I used to not many years ago.  But I don't think I have ever disconnected since owning a smartphone.  I just don't do with it what most do.  I'm in search of what I think is interesting.  But this is why I smoke a pipe.  My heart demands relaxation.  Maybe his does too.  And just maybe it's not so weird after all.  Today it is my Gettysburg pipe with some Captain Black Original.  Thank you for your time and Peace to each one of you.

Dave