Everyone's going on about how technology is making our lives so much easier; everyday appliances almost eliminate the term 'chore', and communication has bridged the divide on a whole other level altogether.
Before the advent of the telephone (let alone it's cellular equivalent), snail-mail was the popular choice (for lack of any other alternative) for keeping in touch. Much before that were the effective usage of homing-pigeons, but let's just not get into that.
So anyway, post; the good old pony express. For an 8-year old I don't think anything else can quite match the thrill of recieving a hand written letter from a pen-pal, or an actual greeting card on your birthday. Sifting throught the letters in your not-so-virtual inbox was like waiting for an acceptance letter...everyday. And seeing your name on the envelope was the cream on the cake.
And then came the e-mail. At first it was exhilarating, sure. But eventually the excitment died down. Typing in your password and waiting for the entire contents of your inbox to pop up on the screen could never be as exciting. The mystery of the letter's substance was exposed with the 'help' of the subject box, or the sneak preview. Much like the friend who couldn't wait for you to watch the movie, so did you a 'favour' by revelaing the end.
Birthday and congratulatory cards sent via signals were just viewed and not felt. Sort of like the 'Look, but don't touch' sign at an art gallery.
Concern is now expressed through mail-forwards warning you of cancerous products, and emotions have been substituted with 'emoticons.'
Texting has replaced the need for actual calling, and now Facebook has replaced the need for actual texting.
It's true when they say that one day this planet will be taken over and run by robots. Those automatons they're talking about...that's us.
Cheers.
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2 comments:
Ahhh, self proclaimed hippie, and thank you, i love this post you just wrote about technology, you couldn't have been more precise on how desensitized we've become to any sort of true emotion because of the technology we have. Weird to blame technology for it all, huh? But its the biggest cause. Well now that i've babbled for way too long, you can consider me a fan as well.
I think this is my favourite post. I've been feeling the same way. In today's world, we can't expect our friends to send us a nice hand-written letter, so I try and settle for long emails or posts on FB...I guess even that is too much to ask for. Most of the time I get emails written "lyk dis". Sometimes, I can't reply back because I don't even understand what was being said!
Anyway, this post gets 5 stars. Excellent!
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