Darwin's way

I was watching a young man of my distant acquaintanceship ride his bicycle down a busy street the other day.

Nice enough kid in his way. Has some semblance of a work ethic, which puts him ahead of many of his contemporaries. One of the local restaurants has employed him part-time in the dish-pit for a couple of years.

Must make enough to pay for the cell phone he's busy texting on as he's riding his bike down that busy street.

Texting is a two handed operation, so he's got no hands left for the handle-bars. He's got his fancy headphones on, the big expensive jobs that are popular with the kids these days. He's got his hoodie blocking most of his peripheral vision.

I know his boss the restaurant guy a bit. Says the lad is so stunned he can't read the difference between "soup" and "soap", which is definitely an impediment to moving up the ranks in the restaurant business.

He's going to be graduating from grade 12 this year.

I'm wondering what he'd be texting about? Maybe telling his mom he'll be home soon? Telling her he won't be home soon? Telling his buddies he'll meet them at the downtown Timmies in ten minutes? Who knows?

And who cares?

I'm guessing he's paying somewhere  between $50 and $100 a month for that cell so that he can be instantly in touch with his mother and his buddies. Is the information he's sharing worth that amount?

Obviously to them it is. After all, the mother and the buddies all have to be paying similar amounts to stay in touch with our hands-free bicycle pilot.

And obviously it's important to the cellular industry. In the marketing coup of the modern era the cell folks have managed to convince a huge slice of the population that their every fleeting thought is worth $50 to $100 a month to share with their world.

You  see it everywhere. Seven year olds on their way to school blabbing into their cell phones or texting. Grown adults in every grocery calling home to see what else they need to pick up. It's almost a novelty these days to see a teen walking down the street not staring down at the hand-held device in front of them, thumbs flying, sharing the good news that they got 64% in their math test.

It's the best example ever of an industry coming up with a product and then creating a need for that product. But I am convinced that the market has limits.

Darwin sets those limits.

If my interpretation of Darwin is reasonably sound, bicycle boy is only going to spend a certain amount of hours texting while biking.

Then he's going to be a minor headline in the local paper, and he'll be lost to the cell phone industry forever.

Hopefully that happens before he manages to reproduce.