ROME – The Vatican is betting an iPod beats "Shush!" in lowering the tour guide noise level in basilicas.
It will even lend you one for free to try to prove its point.
From a tiny booth in the back of St. John in Lateran, the Holy See's pilgrim agency has been quietly asking tourists if they want to tour Rome's oldest basilica with an iPod in hand loaded with an app specially designed to access the place's art, architecture and Christian history.
I'm a little ambivalent about this, leaning toward the negative. As it is, where can't you go these days without spotting people meandering around, eyes and minds utterly fixated on the bright, flashing screens of their little mobile devises, ipods and ipads? You see it all the time at restaurants, in churches, at cafes, in the home, at work, while walking. The list goes on, and children and adults are both utterly hooked. The phenomenon of withdrawing inside a handheld devise, and away from the other before you, is ubiquitous, and in my opinion, dangerous. There may be certain benefits, but at what cost?
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