Le doigt dessus!

Marshall Jones dresse un portrait réaliste et plein d'humour de notre monde digital et de la façon dont celui-ci nous déconnecte les uns des autres. Intraduisible. En résumé, tandis que nous touchons nos écrans à cœur de journée, plus personne ne se touche…

J’ai cherché une transcription l’an dernier, en vain. En voici une trouvée hier. L’univers, dans sa grande bienveillance, répond toujours à nos désirs et livre la marchandise un jour ou l’autre; peu importe que ce soit à contretemps…

TOUCHSCREEN

By Marshall Jones

Second Place finishers at the 2011 National Poetry Slam

Transcript: 

Introducing the new Apple “i”Person

complete with multitouch and volume control
doesn’t it feel good to touch?
doesn’t it feel good to touch?
doesn’t it feel good to touch?
my world is so digital
I have forgotten what that feels like
It used to be hard to connect
when friends formed cliques
but it’s even more difficult to connect
now that clicks form friends

But who am I to judge
I face Facebook
more than books face me
hoping to book face-to-faces
I update my status
420 spaces to prove I’m still breathing
failure to do this daily means
my whole web wide world would forget that I exist
but with 3000 friends online
only five I can count in real life
why wouldn’t I spend more time in a world
where there are more people that ‘like’ me
wouldn’t you?

Here, it doesn’t matter if I’m an amateur person
as long as I have a ‘pro’ file
my smile is 50% genuine and 50% genuine HD
you would need Blu-rays to view the white of my teeth
but I’m not that focused
10 tabs open
hopin’ my problems can be resolved
with a 1500 by 1600 resolution

This is a problem with this evolution doubled over
we used to sit in treetops
till we swung down to stand upright
then someone slipped a disc
now we’re doubled over at desktops
from the garden of Eden
to the branches of Macintosh
apple picking has always come at a great cost
iPod iMac iPhone iChat
I can do all of these things without making eye contact

We used to sprint to pick and store blackberries
now we run to the Sprint stores to pick Blackberries
it’s scary
I can’t hear the sound of mother nature speaking
over all that tweeting
and along with it is our ability to feel as it’s fleeting

You’d think these headphone jacks inject in the flesh
the way we connect to disconnect
power on
so we get powerless
they’ve got us love drug
like e-pills
so we e-trade
e-mail
e-motion
like e-commerce
because now money can buy love
for 995 a month
click
to proceed to checkout
click
to x out where our hearts once were
click
I’ve uploaded this hug I hope she gets it
click
I’m making love to my wife I hope she’s logged in
click
I’m holding my daughter over a Skype conference call
while she’s crying in the crib in the next room
click

So when my phone goes off of my hip
iTouch and iTouch and iTouch
because in a world
where there are voices that are only read
and laughs that are never heard
I’m so desperate to feel
that I hope Techno-logic can reverse the universe
so the screen can touch me back
and maybe it will
when our technology is advanced enough…
to make us human again!

Performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAx845QaOck