If you're like me, and I know I am...

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Technology Will Keep Us Together/Tear Us Apart

Dear Bloggie Sue,
Why is is that in our age of technological connectivity
we are more isolated as individuals than ever before?
Signed,
Sitting Alone in my Apartment Watching Porn I Ordered
through my digical (sic) cable box
Dear Sitting Alone,
First of all, you don't actually have to type "signed" on a
letter, that's just what people say when they read a letter
aloud. Secondly, man is by his very nature a social creature.
Yet we crave freedom and independence as much as we
crave that connection to other people. When the loner sits
at home watching his favorite TV show, he gets the same
social buzz as hanging out with people who can actually
see him. The cast of "Friends" felt like real friends to many
people who cared about their characters. It was a placebo
affect created by the intimacy of television. This technology
is not far removed from our Internet experience in which we
can "meet" people online, We aren't actually meeting anyone.
In some ways, we aren't really even communicating. We could
be talking to a computer in some instances and not know the
difference.
Personally, I think our economy pushes up toward "independent"
living. One family per household maximizes the amount of crap
we have to buy. If we lived in a house with extended family, which
was much closer to the norm prior to WWII, then several families
could actually share a fridge and a stove, maybe a car. But
somewhere along the line, we were all convinced that we should
want to live alone rather than with the annoyances of the human
tribe. I don't think this is our natural state.
Human beings are full of neuroses and dichotomies. We want to
be alone even when we are lonely because being alone in a crowd
makes us feel even lonelier. We prefer the company of technology
because we can pick it up and put it down as soon as we're done
with it.
I don't think we really use technology to connect with people so
much as we use it to maintain the house of cards which is our
isolation. And it's only going to get worse.

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