During my lunch break today, I sat on a bench outside and happily listened to the latest episode of Accidental Tech Podcast through my AirPods. All of a sudden, one of the IT people from my building walked past and yelled, ‘I’ve seen you wearing those earphones quite a bit; aren’t you afraid that they’ll fry your brain?’!.
I responded matter-of-factly, ‘Well, they run on low-energy Bluetooth and they don’t have any cellular radios, so as far as I’m aware my brain should be fine. We’re surrounded by Wi-Fi in that building anyway, so there’s no escape’.
Linking back to my Daily Rumination No. 14: Unwanted Comments, this is yet another example of an interjection that I did not request. The spontaneous commentator could see that I was in the middle of enjoying my lunch and listening to something, yet felt the need to disturb me with the still unproven theory of mobile-phone-induced-brain-frying. Also in motion, I can assume the commentator was hoping to achieve the interjection-equivalent of a drive-by shooting, without a response. My answer also seemed to flummox this person, as once they continued, they had to pause awkwardly and look around the adjacent car park to remember where they had parked their vehicle.
For all I know, there could be long-term effects of wearing wireless headsets that are yet to be discovered. I’ve read much of the research on arguably riskier mobile-phone use, however, and it is still inconclusive.
What I find particularly amusing is that the spontaneous commentator is in the IT department. I have seen this person surrounded by numerous activated devices and sporting a BLUETOOTH HEADSET on Skype for much of the working day.
Until any new scientific discoveries prove such theories to be true, please excuse me if I fail to take this person seriously.
Lounge Ruminator 