Car Alarms

Summary

The text humorously describes an incident where a car alarm is triggered by children walking by, but not by an adult or a bag of trash, leading the adult to question their existence.

Abstract

The narrative revolves around the peculiar behavior of a car alarm that is set off multiple times by three children as they walk past a car without touching it. The children seem to have discovered a quirk in the car's security system, as the alarm is triggered by their presence alone. An adult witnessing this from a distance is perplexed when the alarm does not activate for them or a bag of trash they are carrying, which is larger than the children. This leads to a comical existential crisis where the adult questions whether they are too old to trigger the alarm or if they are, in fact, a non-entity. The story ends with the adult pondering their existence after the bizarre experience.

Opinions

The author finds car alarms to be excessively annoying, to the point of preferring to give away their car to stop the noise.
The author expresses a sense of humor about the situation, as evidenced by their willingness to hand over car keys to a potential thief.
There is a hint of skepticism regarding the effectiveness of car alarms, as the system falsely identifies a threat when children walk by but fails to activate for an adult or an inanimate object.
The author perceives the car alarm's inconsistent behavior as absurd, leading to an amusing yet genuine contemplation of their own existence and reality.

Tech I don’t understand

Car alarms are annoying. If someone tried to steal my car, setting off the alarm, I would go out and hand them the keys so they they could take the car and stop that infernal noise.

But that’s just me.

Earlier today I looked out my window and noticed 3 kids walking down the sidewalk. As they passed a certain car the alarm went off. They didn’t even touch the car. They just walked past it.

The kids ran but not far. Turning to look back, the alarm stopped. They then walked back past the car and the alarm went off again. After the alarm stopped they walked past it again and again triggering the alarm 5 times before they got bored and left.

Later I took out the trash. Carrying my bag of trash I decided to walk past the same car. The alarm did not go off. Coming back from the dumpster I walked past it again without the alarm going off.

I fell into an existential crisis. I’m bigger than those kids. Heck, the bag of trash was bigger than them. Why did they set off the alarm and not me? Am I too old? Am I a phantom? Do I even exist?