Today before class was nice. I got to school early to talk with the director of the MBA program, then spent the next hour in a study room that’s relatively quiet. Sometimes I’m there by myself, sometimes there are a handful of other people, sometimes it’s a group talking about a presentation—whatever the case might be, it’s usually a pretty peaceful place to study. Or in this case, type on my computer.
My computer was important because during the course of that hour, I’m pretty sure someone came into the room who I didn’t want to talk to for reasons I ain’t gonna tell you. He said hi to a another person in the room and it sounded like his accent, but I kept staring at the screen and typing, not looking up to see if it was him.
How could I ignore them without seeming rude? Headphones. I had them plugged into my phone so I could listen to music while typing. (Thankfully, I don’t have to worry about listening to the same songs over and over again—I’ve got about 4 1/2 days worth of mp3 files in there.) So I kept my headphones on and kept typing intently. Did I know he was there? Yes. Did he know I knew he was there? Nope!
The ability to isolate ourselves into little bubbles via the use of technology may not be a good thing. Being in a room where everyone is plugged into mp3 players or staring at their smart phones… it’s a little disconcerting, given that people in that situation would have had to interact with each other just a few years ago.
In this case, though, thank goodness for technology bubbles. It helped me avoid talking to the guy since he left the room before I looked up from the screen (about half an hour later) and I got to listen to music at the same time. Music is awesome. Definitely better than listening to people semi-whispering about their presentation for class in an hour.
