Thursday, July 01, 2004

So, I was going to talk about gluttony today but I feel like talking about something else. It's semi-Marxist in context. And forgive me if I have talked about this before.

Technology is alienating us from ourselves. Now, I'm no Luddite but I sometimes worry that sometime in the future, we will have no human contact. We'll just sit in a cube hooked up to machines that satisfy all of our needs. I know I for one do most of my shopping on the internet now. And I communicate much more through e-mail than I do through phone etc.

I read a scifi short story in high school that talked about this. People lived in little rooms surrounded by computers and never had to get up from their chair or have any human contact. (do you remember that, Kelly?)

Anyway, I worry about that with all this e-mail and blogging that I do. I got to know a friend over the internet one time and it was weird when we finally met up again in person. I had developed a picture in my mind of this "internet" person and meeting him in the flesh didn't seem real. It was awkward for awhile. I wonder if that will be the same with my new e-mail buddy. (Hi Gary!)

As much as technology seems to make our lives easier, it is also corrupting us in many ways and alienating us from each other.


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