Does no-one else feel the shivers down their spine at the realisation that faster and faster we are being over-run by technology?, writes Sam Longmore, of Logan Park High School.
That we are rapidly losing not only our desire to interact with each other face to face, but also our ability to do so? That things that started out as tools to make our lives easier are now
I know for certain that I do. It truly scares me when I step back from the crowd, all of whom are glued to their individual screens, and look at, "how far we have come". Or should I say how close we are getting to a complete technological take over?
All of this paraphernalia, spawned from human laziness; our desire for an easier, more comfortable life, is quickly consuming time that used to be dedicated to physical interaction.
It scares me when I'm at a party surrounded by people I've know for years upon years and one of them gets up and says, "I've just got to check my Facebook," and wanders over to the computer in the corner. This even five years ago would have been considered a fairly rude thing to do in a social situation such as a party.
However, such is the level that technology has invaded our lives that, the numbers of us, who still feel offended at this blatant disregard for our presence, are now becoming fewer and fewer. This increasingly regular occurrence is one that scares me...
It is now so easy to communicate with the outside world from the comfort of our own homes that I am surprised at my shock at the extent to which people are losing touch with what used to be considered the simplest of social standards.
I feel that this devolution of sorts stems simply from the increasing use of pseudo-communication tools such as cell phones, instant messaging and worst of all . . . "social" networking sites such as Facebook.
The desire - no, perceived need - to own a cellphone is being seen in children younger and younger in age. Is it that they see a cellphone as a symbol of becoming more mature, or, that these days, not 10 years after the obsession with texting hit the developed world, children plainly have to get a phone in order to stay in "the loop" with their friends? I personally think that the latter is true and this fact is another that scares me...
Now that communication face to face has been more or less replaced by "communication" through not only a visual, but also tonal divider of some sort, be it a computer monitor or LCD cellphone screen; is it at all shocking that we, human beings, perhaps the most social of all animals on earth are beginning to lose our ability to communicate with one another in the flesh?
Not only are we losing our capacity for interaction in its purest and, at one time only form, we are also losing our need to. These days we seem more than content with trading off body language, eye contact and vocal tone for convenience. More and more people are satisfied with sitting at their keyboards instead of getting "out there" and doing it for real. This reality is one which scares me...
Faster and faster we are creating new ways to make our lives "easier" and faster and faster these once "wonderful breakthroughs" are becoming hindrances without us even realiwing it.
We, the living thing, the animal, are swiftly being swamped by these flashing, beeping boxes and screens of our own creation.
How long will it be before all of our old habits become completely obsolete?
I feel sure that the ways in which we once communicated with each other are well on their way to becoming practices of the distant past. That communication will be the first to go, promptly followed by other aspects of human existence which were also taken for granted.
I fear that the ways in which we go about recreation, relaxation and even procreation will soon begin to suffer as a result of our lust for fancy new gadgets and eventually vanish completely as we blindly hurry, faster and faster, down, and I do mean down, the path toward a complete technological takeover.
This hunch my fellow savage, is one that should scare you...
- Sam Longmore is a Year 13 Logan Park student and co-owner of Dunedin's latest record label, Proxy Music. They are soon to release Dunedin bands TFF and Sewage's debut albums. Check out their website: proxymusic.org
