I could never drive for Uber. Or for Lyft. Or for however many of those copycat companies that have sprung up in the past couple of years. I can’t even begin to imagine the logistical nightmare, being at the mercy of those who rode with me, for reviews, for validation. And the driving. When I drive I find it soothing. I can’t imagine not being able to listen to whatever I wanted to listen to, dropping people off and picking up others.

If I wanted to do that, I would have gone to cab school.

Yet, the business model of these companies is undeniable. Use the general public to shuttle around the other general public. No worries about parking spaces. No concern with long-term airport parking. No reason for a garage. You get dropped off where you want, and it’s all from the convenience of your own phone. The concept is one of those grand scale ones, but one that would have only come about in this age, where apps are like candy, and everyone could use an extra few bucks.

I’ve never ridden in one. Though, I think I should qualify that. I’ve ridden with people who have become Uber drivers, or Lyft drivers, but long before they had garnered that distinction. I live in the country, and while I’m sure I could get somebody to drive out here to pick me up and drop me off, I’m inconvenient. I imagine them getting my location on their app and either moving on to the next one or getting lost making their way here. There goes convenience.

And I think about what the cab companies are doing to combat this, or if they can even combat this. Will they become as obsolete as the VHS tape? Continue reading “In Uber [They Trust]” →

This is a new age. I know it astounds me every single day, with the access we have to so much information, with the connections to so many resources, with pretty much everything that has been expanded and re-imagined since I was a kid.

I think it started with music. When I was young it was all about cassette tapes, and eventually CD’s. But with the rise of digital music it changed the whole landscape. Now it’s playlists and music apps. We have pretty much unlimited music libraries at our fingertips, on our phones.

Social media was next. It was the first thing beyond email to really bring people together who weren’t in the same geographical area. The idea was to connect socially in ways we never had before, and it succeeded. It continues to succeed, and the formula is easy. As human beings we have the desire, the need, to connect with each other, to share our hopes, and dreams, and fears, and visits to Starbucks.

This was a way to reconnect with those we had lost touch with, a chance to maintain connections with those we saw on a semi-regular basis, an outlet to inform others of what was happening in our lives. But it morphed into something else, as things often do, especially when they’re related to technology. It became a virtual place to see and be seen, a “meeting place” where we could be with others without being with others.

It’s all very fascinating, really, the idea that we can have a community of people we are close friends with, of those who we are acquaintances with, and even of those we have never met in person. Continue reading “Virtual Friends” →

“It’s become so obvious. You are so oblivious to yourself. You’re tied in a knot, but I’m not gonna get caught calling a pot kettle black.” ~Wilco

I just finished reading Porcelain, the first memoir by Moby, and it was absolutely fascinating. I didn’t think I had any preconceived notions about him, and yet my mouth was open nearly the entire first half. What hit me the most was when he talked about all the random sex, all the one night stands he had, being part of the raver scene in NYC in the 1990’s.

One liaison bled into the next on the page. Maybe I’m just not used to people being so open about their sexual experiences, or maybe I’m just shocked at how many people become part of a scene, not knowing what it entails, and yet it gets grafted onto their ideals in bits and pieces until the scene is indistinguishable from them. They become like interchangeable bodies, not even names at that point, not even human beings by then, just robots programmed for these kinds of relationships that aren’t real relationships.

I often read a poem to my English 102 students; it’s by Sharon Olds, and it’s called “Sex Without Love.” It says, “How do they do it, the ones who make love / without love?” The idea is that even the words we use to describe sex aren’t always adequate, that they are often not up to date with how society is defining the entirely physical relationships. I guess to me it’s always been this feeling of, “Can you separate these two parts of yourself, the physical and the emotional?” Continue reading “The Black Pot and Kettle” →