Month: March 2009

At least today she’s Gone Gone Gone. See, while the US military and universities struggle to invent the invisibility cloak (getting closer), Steve Jobs and AT&T achieved invisibility years ago. Pay close attention the next time you are in public. Our social rules keep us from even making eye contact with a person on the phone. We don’t want to breach their privacy so we turn off our ears and physically turn away from them. Trying to recall the details of a person talking on the phone in public is more difficult than recalling the details of a person not speaking on the phone. I have no scientific study to back up that statement. It is just my own assertion but try it. Take a friend to the mall. Make mental notes about various people then stop and ask your friend to describe them 45 seconds later. The people talking on their phones are invisible! Even Girl Scouts selling cookies choose to skip their sales pitch to people speaking on the phone.

Now, setting is important. The person discussing private business dealings at the topic of their lungs in a quiet restaurant draws attention to themselves and is far from invisible. The loud talking, me, me, me, attention gather is trying to draw eyes to themselves and is the opposite of invisible.

iPods, MP3 players of all types, and anything that requires we plug wires into our ears also make us invisible. Our body language says, "Don’t talk to me!" Speaking to a person with earphone plugged into their ears might be a waste of time. They may not hear you and the frustration of raising your voice, getting their attention, and repeating yourself multiple times just isn’t worth it. To simply avoid talking to them is less physically exerting and less stressful. So we avoid interrupting people listening to their music or podcasts and they too become invisible. Today my wife joins the invisible people as she listens to loud music and gets things done around the house.