* From Neighborliness to Narcissism: the World of "Textelation"

Isolatoes

In a word painting similar to American Gothic, guest writer, Ron Richo, encapsulates an American transformation over the last half century in three vivid images of closing off .

PK

" In my lifetime America turned its back on the world when it exchanged the front porch for the backyard patio.

Now it has closed its eyes and ears to [the world] with cell phones and earphones.

Nothing will change this but it is very hard to see.

I did coin a new word out of all this though.

When you see someone on the subway or on the street reacting to a text with a smile, I call that ' textelation.' "

Ron Richo

May 5, 2013