The Great Lie
Used to be when you wanted to get your point across you actually got in someone’s face – no more. The disassociative nature of technology is separating and fragmenting our society rather than bringing it together. It is called ‘social networking’, but is it really?! Sure, there is connection in some way, but from the lonely dark rooms of our homes or worse yet, crowded rooms where we are cubicled off from each other. The great lie being propagated as the panacia to a one world, global society was that technology was going to cure our ills by bringing ideas and people together. Have you experienced a sense of joining with the world lately, or do you feel more closed off than ever before?
Take the advent of television: what began to happen? Families sat in a passive state as entertainment came at us one way only, no interacting with it. Thus we see whole families sitting idle, deadened expressions, faces awash in flickering cathode rays. The family card nights, board games, charades and alike falling by the wayside. T.v. trays took the place of dinner tables, as our society fell under the spell of this new broadcast medium. …and that was only the beginning.
Cell phones demanded our attention to the point of becoming a deadly nuisance. Legislators had to pass laws to keep us safe from ourselves and the need to take our eyes and ears away from the demanding skill required to keep our cars safely on the road. Now, they not only demand our attention and interrupt us socially, they demand our income and skew our priorities. Putting food in our children’s mouths falls to second on the list, under getting that new ‘Windows’ phone, required to maintain our image among peers and co-workers. Can’t pay that ballooning monthly bill AND feed the brats, ya know?! Besides, skipping a couple of days of nourishment will keep that waistline slim and boost our status rating a couple of points in the interim!
Now we rush to our computers to log-on at the temple of social ‘concensus’ networking. How many comments did I get about my post? How many friends can I acquire, so that my life may have value or meaning by their validation? Forget what I think or feel about myself, I NEED your opinion of me before it will come home that I’m worth ANYTHING! That is truely pathetic. But blame must be laid at the feet of this new expediancy and ease with which we gain access to millions on a global scale through modern technology, that and the isolation, fear and loneliness it breeds. Emails and websites that drive children (CHILDREN!) to kill themselves, because someone out there hates them and the world has found out about it and is rapidly spreading the word across the cyber-globe. “I can’t live with myself if YOU don’t approve of me!!!” “Be my friend in my network – I’ll whore myself for the largest volume of people on this site.” …snuff video at 11 via YouTube.com – come one, come all, the depth of despair is unfathomable.
Certainly there is validity in Tony Stark’s argument that he has fed millions with his ‘IntelliCrops’ or that medicine has held off the next black plague – there is much to be conceded to the good of technology in those areas and many others as well. What we shouldn’t concede is the welfare of our children. Can’t we see that the rise in incidence of ADHD or ADD is because powerfully agendized programing is being launched toward them in 10 second sound bites at 60 MHz refresh rates, peircing their brains before they have a chance to absorb, comprehend and assimilate the information?! They are being bullied by advertising and seduced by the sirens of the music industry before they have a chance to make a choice. We shouldn’t abide that aspect of modern technology, when we think putting small children in front of a t.v. will nursemaid them, so that we can get some quality time in on our Facebook pages.
Examiner.com – Nov 10, 2010