Gadget Mania

I am being driven mad by others e-mail, iPhones, texts, Facebook updates, Twitter "tweets," checking a bank balance, gaming, intuitive online searches with computers, Data is being collected, presented and acted upon in real time today. To the gadget addicts it's all about immediacy and instantaneous data and is so sad. But privacy, intimacy in communication and simple communication are often sacrificed in the process. Just observe people dinning in a restaurant today and you will see some ignoring their dinning mate while they get intimate with their cell phones.

This is the Age of the Gadget, a time when a lack of common sense and self discipline have estranged humans from each other as they have built a wall (the technology) between each other that is a pile of gadgets, most of which are used excessively and rudely. But don't tell them to unplug! It is impossible for them. People tend to go through withdrawal when denied their constant gadget stimulation, as if on heroine. When they can't use one of the devices that seems to control their lives they have no life at all. Users have surrendered to and accepted a lack of privacy that comes with being addicted to their gadgets, surrendering some of their personal freedom in the balance.

But do we need to be connected out side of professional /business reasons? Or are we all so codependent that we want to be connected so as not to feel left out? Too, many people have lost the ability or never learned how to communicate face to face because of those gadgets. The devices have made us lazy and non communicative on a personal level. Solitude is found many forms today, including interacting with others through gadgets.

Some of the devices strip us naked, revealing to anyone, anywhere all about us. I find that a little dehumanizing, and the unknown is often the most attractive qualities people possess. Sure the technology has good aspects, but those are often trampled in search for the negatives. Perhaps getting those gadgets so quickly and so often does not give humans time to evaluate their usefulness. What is new or trendy becomes what is good, not what is beneficial to our lives.

I wonder where the love of all this gadgetry will lead. Will gadgets completely take over human reason and occupy all of our time? Or we will finally, objectively evaluate them and use them for good rather than to escape reality/ What do you think?