Does anyone recognize these phrases? "She's just checked out." "He's in la-la land." "His head's in the clouds." I know there are dozens more phrases that all mean the same thing: A person's brain just doesn't want to participate any longer.
I was reminded of this human ability to 'check out' while having to click on either 'log-in' or 'log out' for the umpteenth time after being in online sites. Just clicking a spot on a menu bar is so much more efficient than having to turn one's brain on or off. I want that ability. Like Staples "Easy Button", having an embedded button in my body that says 'logged in' or 'logged out' would just be clearer to everyone around me, including myself. There would be no room for confusion about whether I was engaged or disengaged in a discussion or activity. Sometimes I am not clear about whether I am engrossed in whatever present surroundings I find myself in. By having to chose what the button says, my own participation would not be open for conjecture. I'd be either 'in' or 'out'.
Now that I am pondering this important life-question, I could, perhaps, see the need for a third choice to push on my embedded button: Ambivalent. The 'ambivalent' choice could buy a person a bit more time in which to decide if he or she is either logged in or logged out. By choosing 'ambivalent', those around the undecided person might know to give wider berth until the action-choice button has been selected. Of course, with the way technology is now moving at the speed of light, this embedded-button idea could be expanded to include a wide-array of behavioral choices and messages that a person could select from. The problem would come when some genius figures out a way for the button to simply say what the person is thinking, in which case, I, along with countless others, could be in deep doggy-doo.
This button concept is probably being tested in a sheep somewhere in the heart of the British Isles. I think I'd better be careful what I wish for, don't you?
Just to let the reader know: I am now logging out.
Ancora imparo
