At the beginning of December, the Chicago Tribune Magazine devoted its entire issue to today’s ever-increasing and always-changing technology. I’m just now getting around to reading it, which is an indication not only of how behind I am in my reading but also how slow I am to glom onto technology in the first place.
One article in the issue raised the question: “Is technology bringing people together or driving them apart?” The pro people and the con people both had their say; and, after reading their opinions, I still come down on the driving-us-apart side.
My gut reaction is that technology originally designed to communicate — such as the cellphone — tends to erode a natural social component of life. With these devices, people can be in their own oblivious worlds even when they are out and about in the world at large. They walk around with their hands up to their ears in the super market, in the car, and in the movies. My son, the university professor, says they fiddle in class with text messaging as if they were Morse Code professionals.
I’m probably the one who is behind the times, but I think having to be plugged in and touching base with friends every waking moment is unnecessary. It’s uncreative. It’s rude. How many of us have watched the doors close and then heard someone in the back say, “I’m in the elevator now”? How many of us have heard the multiple clicks of flip phones coming to life and a chorus of “We just landed”?
I admit I own a cellphone. I think it’s a good thing to have in my car in case of an emergency or to let someone know I’m going to be late to an appointment. But I never just chat on it or download photos to it or spend precious time programming its ring to resemble Beethoven’s Fifth.
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