Personal Space

How do we define personal space? It is that area around us where we feel comfortable. Generally, about three feet around us, basically an arm’s length. It is our safe space. We personalize this space to fit ourselves. Our homes are a broad example of this space. More intimate spaces might be a particular room in the house, or our office, and if you work at a company that utilizes ABW (Activity Based Workspace) it is that 3’ x 5’ area you stake out as your own. If someone sits in your usual spot you stare them down with contempt, “how dare they sit in your spot,” says that little voice in your head, echoed by “don’t they know that it is where I sit.” We are territorial creatures, we mark our areas, not actually like a dog, but pretty close. We want our scent to permeate the area, so we know it is ours and so do others. We decorate the area with pictures or tchotchkes; those little objects that adorn our space. I have Bob, one of the minions from Despicable Me, he sits to my left next to my computer mouse. I can’t stand it when someone picks up Bob and holds him in their hand, oh the violation of my space. This is how we all are with our personal space. This space is so important that we have extended it to our cars, trucks, and SUVs. Our space has gone mobile.

The driver’s seat in our vehicle is especially suited to nurture our personal space. The size of the space neatly houses our bodies so almost everything we need to use in the car is within our reach. The buttons for the windows, the controls for the radio/entertainment system, I’m probably showing my age at this point, but who cares. We may call these items different names, but the functions are still the same. The center console usually has two cup holders, one for the driver and presumably the other for the passenger. How many times have you been the passenger and had a cup of coffee or bottle of water in your hand when you got in a friend’s car and you went to put that cup in one of the holders, only to see that the holder had fulfilled another purpose for the driver? They sneer for a moment and then make a slight attempt to clear the holder for your use. You say something like, “I got it , don’t worry”, and without a moment of hesitation they leave the crap in the holder right where it is. Why, because you are a guest, and it is their space.

It is this attitude that intrigues me and why it fits into “A No Turn On Red”, because there is an addition to the personal space that transforms the driver from a kind, polite person into a “road demon”; a PMD-Personal Media Device, aka a cell phone.

Once in the driver seat, the transformation takes place. Seat belt is clipped, the phone is connected to the vehicle via blue-tooth, and the driver’s brain is interfaced with the PMD. The human brain, no longer needed to think for itself, is put in sleep mode. The iPhone or android (how poetic) is in now in charge. Your destination is programmed in, no need to know how to get where you are going. The programmed voice will tell you when to turn left or right. The voice emanating from the dashboard will announce your exit just as it comes into sight. Your brain wakes up and you veer across three lanes of traffic to make the exit. Brake lights blare, a few horns beep and you slide onto the exit ramp without disrupting the peaceful connection with the PMD. Moments later the PMD will declare “you’ve arrived “without you having a clue as to how you got there. Even if not sure where your destination is, have no fear, the PMD said it is here, therefore it must be. For God’s sake, does anyone remember how to get to where they’re going without a device telling them?

Once in the car the brain obeys the phone, we all seem to obey the PMD even outside the car. I wonder if Alexander Graham Bell (for some of you Bell invented the telephone, the granddaddy of your PMD), ever envisioned just how a simple communication device would take over as an integral part of the human brain, giving direction, pain, and pleasure, because so many others can’t want to talk to us. We have become so important in our personal spaces that what happens arounds us is just a nuisance. Some can’t help themselves.