Gene Lu

Pull the Fire Alarm
Friday, 23 May 2008

People are way more connected with machines than with each other nowadays. Every morning on my way to work, I can honestly say that more than 50% of commuters are on their headphones or playing with their PDAs. You might end up in the occassional stare with fellow commuters, but nothing, not even a conversation, would follow up because both of you are too involved with your music, prepping an email for work, playing sudoku on your PDA, watching an MP4, etc. It's somewhat depressing when you realize how little people communicate with each other in-person. The cold feel of zeros and ones replace the intricacies of what a person has to offer.

Something has spooked the prairie dogs
Courtesy of jsin123 @ CartoonStock.com
Not only does this sort of atmosphere manifest itself on the train, but also at work.

A few days ago, the Internet went down at the office. Instantaneously, a relay of audible noise spread throughout the network of cubicles: "Doh! Internet went down!", "Ahh, time to go home!", "Bar... Anyone?"...

Amongst the comments, people started popping up from their cubicles like prairie dogs out on the Great Plains. Conversations were set off with fellow cube neighbors and there seemed to be a greater sense of morale (unity perhaps?). I don't recall anyone being permanently distraught over a lost connection because if they were, they were met with the company of others in search of conversations, the interaction with other human beings. "404: Page Not Found" error messages were replaced by a thought, comments, and conversations verbalized by people with one another. The zeros and ones briefly subtracted from our lives. I've never felt so liberated that day until...

The Internet came back on.

2008-05-23 17:48:01 Jenny
intimacy gone i was just telling someone the other day i don't even like talking on the phone anymore. i just text people all the time.
2008-05-29 00:53:40 Gene
I noticed that texting was big among the younger crowd a few years back... and sad to say, I find myself texting a lot now.

Honestly though, we are definitely becoming too reliant on technology nowadays. Amazon's Kindle (electronic book), -ehem- text messaging, iPods, iPhones, etc.

I say in about 100 years, mankind will approach that of Mojo from Marvel comics.
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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.
 
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