1311 Distraction

Sometimes people get so caught up in new technological gizmos that they lose their common sense. It’s easy I suppose, why get a new toy if you don’t play with every bell and whistle?
But sometimes it’s a little weird.
Like this video I watched on a website. Before the main video would play there was a commercial. The commercial was framed in one of those interactive virtual TV windows. You know the ones, they include clickable buttons on the bottom to stop, pause, and control the volume. Anyhow, the commercial quit playing and this other button materialized in the lower right corner.
It said, “replay.”
Wow. Someone actually thought I’d want to replay the commercial that was getting in the way of seeing the video content I originally came to the site to see. That is one proud marketing firm. Sell it Baby!
Then there was the sign near the road at the Fire Station. It was one of those black electronic signs with bright red scrolling words. The kind of sign most city sign ordinances don’t allow on ordinary businesses.
It had this message cycling across it that said 3 million crashes a year were caused by distracted drivers. Funny, it got that message across using moving words and flashing lights.
Just the kind of thing that, um, distracts drivers.
And precisely the reason city sign ordinances forbid this kind of sign.
But hey, the Fire Department has a tight budget, and it wouldn’t be right if they only used their new multi-thousand dollar gizmo to tell us about burn bans.
And if you’re a distracted driver about to crash, what more cost-saving place than right in front of a fire station. They wouldn’t even have to fire up a truck.
Makes sense to me...
America, ya gotta love it.