"Read enough archived editorials, and you begin to believe that as long as human beings have wandered the Earth’s surface, reluctantly grunting at each other about the weather, we have also been entrenched in “an inwardly focused era.” Portable audio, then, is likely more a reflection than an engine of our egotism. The sociologist Edward Hall, in his book “The Hidden Dimension,” from 1966, introduced the discipline of proxemics, which he defined as “the interrelated observations and theories of man’s use of space as a specialized elaboration of culture.” Hall is responsible for the notion of so-called personal space, or the invisible force field most Americans ensconce themselves in while moving through public places; a breach of implied boundaries (per Hall, the human ego extends about a foot and a half outside the body) is neither welcome nor tolerated. No indiscriminate or uninvited contact, the social contract goes. Certainly never any uncomfortably close talking! As W. H. Auden wrote in his poem “Prologue: The Birth of Architecture,” “Some thirty inches from my nose / The frontier of my person goes.” Headphones help demarcate personal space. They allow us to feel cloistered, safe, and comfortably alone."
FB: "These days, people seem to be perpetually gearing themselves up for the epic battle of merely existing. At the end of the day, jogging up to our front doors, we are all Rocky, reaching the summit, conquering that last step: “Just a man / and his will / to survive!”"
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