So, as you know, I am retired. Sondra still works, four days a week in the office and one day at home. Naturally, that leaves me alone at home most of the time. I have a lot of free time and I would want to do something productive, but don’t bother telling me about the fight against global warming or the one for abortion rights. I’m on the side of the angels in either business. Besides, I honestly don’t think there’s much I could contribute. If I am going to try to do something productive, it’s going to have to tap into my range of interests and abilities, (assuming I have any). I am interested in computers and software development. I have had a Mac desktop computer sitting on my shelf, unused, for over seven years. I never got into it because Windows was working well enough for me.
It’s not important for you to know why, but recently I changed my mind. In fact, not only did I want to learn how to operate my Mac, I wanted to be able to use it better than Windows. In addition, I wanted to navigate comfortably in the universe of my Apple ‘devices’, including iPhone and iPad, which up until recently, I could not do. Therefore my long term, day to day retirement project has become making the transition from Microsoft to Apple.
I know how my mind operates. Buying a ‘How to’ book, or some version of ‘Mac for Dummies’ would be a waste of time. While I can get specific information from the Internet, (primarily YouTube), I know that ultimately I will have to ‘learn by doing’. For me, at least, learning any software application (or an operating system) is like riding a bike. Try riding a bike by reading how to do it. Memorize the procedures: throw a leg over the top crossbar, slide back on the seat and pedal. I guarantee you will find yourself on the ground (or worse) in a New York minute. You have to encode ‘riding a bike’ into a neurological format we call ‘muscle memory’, and that can only occur with practice. The advantage of this type of learning is that once learned, like riding a bike, like swimming, it is never forgotten.
With that background, you need to know that lately, I have been teaching myself how to use my iPhone’s camera. I was always a photography enthusiast — and like practically everything in [my] life, I went through phases, got hot and interested in something, only to drop it, sometimes picking it up later, sometimes not. I am not writing a product review here, so I will not talk about the average mobile phone’s camera capabilities. I will only say that it is more amazing than anything a casual photography enthusiast (like me) could have dreamed of 30 years ago. That this small object in the palm of my hand can bring together technological advances in image storage, image transfer, cloud computing, optics, and resolution, coupled with ease of editing and printing is very simply, mind-blowing.
So, this morning, in line with my project to do something productive with my time, I once again applied myself to learning how to better operate my iPhone camera, putting into play all of its computer-related networked capabilities. In order to get the needed practice, I set up the phone on our bedroom window sill, and pointed it across the street.
We live on West End, in the 90’s, on the sixth floor, overlooking the avenue. I set my iPhone on a small tripod, dialed up the 6x telephoto lens, and using a blue-tooth connected shutter release, began taking pictures of the sidewalk across the street: standing back from the window, shutter button in hand, feeling (not a little) like a voyeur, I just snapped the people passing by the stoop across the street, as they walked past the center of my camera frame.
Soon I had dozens and dozens of pictures, representing a real throng passing in what would otherwise be an unrecorded instant of anonymity. Who are they and what can I tell by looking at their pictures more carefully? Do they tell me a story? Can I arrange them into any categories? (Look at the title of this piece. I warned you about wasting time.)
I decided to make a small informal study of my work. I put together a batch of pictures to examine; not too many, not too few. While it wasn’t a ‘random sample’, I simply included the last 30 and erased all the others. I had no direct hand in selecting them. (Of course, neither time of day, nor the street, nor the city, were random. These shots were taken this week, in early July, during a 10 minute span around 8 AM — for most before work, before school, happening to be a prime time for walking your dog as well. Of course, this lack of a double blind random design makes any conclusions, in fact anything at all that I might say in this piece… of dubious value… you were warned.)
Here is the contact sheet. It reminds me of something torn from a page of postage stamps.
So I started by putting these images under magnification. What could I deduce? Men and women seemed equally represented in my sample of 30 photographs, as you would expect. Three people (or 10%) were leading small children by the hand, presumably to school, while two people were pushing carriages.
Five people were walking dogs. They generally walked slower, or perhaps more accurately, their pets pulled them along more leisurely; in order, I presume, to have time to sniff the pee stain laid down earlier and now drying on the sidewalk. (One woman was pushing a carriage and walking a dog — where do I list her? Already my categories are breaking down.)
So that’s what I tried to do — tabulate the people and place them into categories: who is smoking, wearing a mask, shouldering a backpack, or carrying their phone in their hands. It seemed like a simple marketing survey, but I soon found it wasn’t so easy. Do I try to set up a category for people carrying a package or parcel? If not, then where do I put this guy?
He’s got a back pack, a child carrier in front (with a child), while carrying a basket. (He was the only man dressed in ‘suit and tie’. If you thought that 30 pictures taken randomly on the sidewalk across the street, six floors below, would be a pretty boring exercise, try using your imagination and put a narrative story to this fellow.)
None of the 30 were smoking, and that’s good. Although I have decided, after much reflection, that I did not need to wear a mask, (either to protect myself or more selflessly to protect society), I respect anyone’s right to do so. It remains a big issue and I thought it was important to ask: How many were wearing masks? Only one person was wearing it properly, while four wore it under their jaw.
I was led to starting this essay because of my Apple iPhone, so it’s ironic that I end with it as well. How many people that I snapped were carrying a phone in their hand, or more importantly, how many were actually using it while walking. The answer was easily forthcoming. I counted six people carrying a phone; and with the exception of one, all were undeniably using it to communicate with someone or something else while walking.
The fact that a good 20% of people passing beneath my window had access to a presumably full-featured mobile phone buttresses my conviction that the impact of this evolving network of hand held computers today can only be compared to the impact of the automobile on society a hundred years ago. Only today the impact will be greater.
If nothing else, this essay documents that no one has street anonymity. The technology continues to evolve such that we all watch and equally we all are watched. Serve on any grand jury and you will already see the impact of video cameras in the criminal justice system (or on your cable news channel, or Twitter). And it’s not just the street. In my apartment, both Sondra and I ask our handy Google kitchen speaker to set a timer so the toast doesn’t burn, and tell us the recent news, the weather, and even a joke. But consider, in order for a device to respond to your “Hey Google” or “Hey Siri” or “Hey who ever”, your device always has to be listening, 24/7. But it’s okay; it doesn’t feel like Big Brother to me. It doesn’t make me feel paranoid; if anything, it makes me feel somewhat more protected. Science marches on.