I am a prisoner of my blackberry(ies).  I read books on my iPod.  I am gidiot (idiot for gadgets). 

They prevented bad things from happening one night on the subway.

A few nights ago, I was on a stalled train for 25 minutes.  There was more than one would-be rabble-rouser in my car.  But so many people had gadgets or books, that no one took the bait.  I ended up having to walk through four or so cars to get to the front of the train in order to exit at my station.  In each of those cars, the would-be rabble-rousers were unsuccessful in provoking any meaningful disturbance.  People were reading or playing electronic games.

There is hope for our civilization.  How ironic that, in this case, it comes packaged in electronics that in a larger sense rob of us of our identities and anonymity.