I see the new trend these days is to go around in public places, namely grocery and convenience stores, blaring songs from your phone playlist at full volume while I'm trying to shop for almonds.

Almond shopping is a task that demands your full attention because of the flavor and brand variety available these days.

Someone coming up beside me while I'm in the middle of a big almond-buying decision while playing Becky G or Florida Georgia Line is irritating, especially since I think rap died with Public Enemy and today's country music is, well, merely bubble gum pop.

It is the old school equivalent of leaving your stereo blasting while you step inside the store to buy something while I'm left pumping gas listening to a stream of bass that makes me think we're in for the big earthquake or listening to some alleged country star delivering the latest catch phrase about how the load on his keychain is lighter since his baby done kicked him out the door. I actually came up with a song called this after my baby kicked me out the door several years ago.

I have witnessed the public phone playlist playing twice now, once at a convenience store while buying peanuts and the other time at the grocery store while contemplating my big almond purchase. I'm a big fan of nuts, they're good for you and taste delicious.

The Apple Watch and other so-called nifty high-tech things like it has the potential to make people's wrists sound like American Bandstand since there is really nothing else to do with it besides telling time and playing music.

That's why I wear a Timex watch. It's cheap, has a sweeping second hand and it glows in the dark. Plus, as the old ads say, it takes a licking and keeps on ticking and doesn't play music. I'm not interested in having my wrist sound like a concert venue and breaking the concentration of other almond buyers.

Oddly enough, Apple fan I am, I care nothing about an Apple Watch, or as I like to call it, the iWatch, because usually everything Apple makes has an “I” in front of it.

I have no desire to be Dick Tracy and, surprise, surprise, you can't make phone calls with the iWatch. When the dream of brave artists who drew futuristic cities with floating cars on gravity-defying modern highways comes to be, then maybe I'll think about getting an iWatch but until then I have no desire to be Dick Tracy. Plus, I think it would be kind of odd watching people talk into their wrists, making you think they're getting ready to sneeze all the time.

I'd just rather wear my Timex. I may get an LL Bean field watch because the last one I had lasted some 12 years. It also has military time, which is good for deciphering cop time, which to me is confusing. The LL Bean field watch doesn't play music either.

The other problem I have with gadgets is I think too much technology desensitizes us, people staring into their phones and iWatches instead of looking you in the eye and talking, even if they're about to kick you out the door and make the load on your keychain lighter.

My smartphone etiquette has become such that I will say “excuse me” if I've gone a certain amount of time without checking email and then throw it down on the table. I throw my iPhone down on the table to try to prove the marketing department of the LifeProof box wrong. So far they've been right on the money.

Unless someone asks me what's in my playlist, I don't share it. Most people don't ask me for my playlist because they already think my music will be weird. I certainly would not play it in public for all the world to hear me blasting the Lumineers, Avett Brothers and The Clash. I am guilty of blasting Gillian Welch, Lone Justice and Old Crow Medicine Show from my car because I believe the world needs to hear some good music now and then. I respect my fellow almond buyers too much to interrupt their important decision-making.

I guess what this all comes down to can be summarized from a line from a song called Crystal by one of my all time favorite bands, Husker Du. The line is simple: When civilization falls in its grave, technology throws on the dirt.

I read an article the other day about how Steve Jobs would be proud of the iWatch. I don't think he would be if he knew people were using it to distract other folks from buying their almonds. I think he would feel, like me, it's just going to make people more obnoxious — Lance Martin