Lobots

Okay, what is the deal with these people who can't walk the earth without their Bluetooth devices in their ears? Do they really receive so many calls that they can't put their phones up to their ears?

I can see the usefulness of the earpieces if you are working or driving and require your hands to be free. In fact, I wish people who talk on their phones while driving were required to have them. But half the people I see with these things aren't even using them most of the time and they just look pretentious to me. I am starting a small movement to call these people, "Lobots."

Lobot was a character in "The Empire Strikes Back" who had a computer link from his brain to the cloud city of Bespin. He walked around all the time with a device just like the Bluetooth, except that it wrapped around his entire head. He was continuously connected, which came in handy when Lando Calrissian decided to be a good guy and remotely commanded Lobot to have his security forces confront the Imperial Stormtroopers who were occupying the city.

Lobot and friends.

Whenever I see someone walking down the street or in the mall with one of these things on while not using it, I'm tempted to ask them, "How's Lando?"

It's gotten to the point where sales assistants are wearing them in stores now too. I can't quite bring myself to call them clerks because I can't picture Dante and Randal using Bluetooths. There were a few instances for me recently where an associate was speaking while looking directly at me and when I started to answer, they turned away while still talking. It turned out they were responding to someone over their wireless communication system. Couldn't they have just excused themselves from our conversation before they cut me off to deal with a telephone customer, or worse in the last instance, a personal call?

I digress.

What really amuses me about these Lobots is the fact that they usually have only one ear covered, and when that ear is away from my view it appears that they are talking to themselves, which makes them look slightly crazy. The thing is, they appear only a little less so when I see what they're really doing.