We Are Electronic Robots

I think it's getting harder to "do nothing" these days, and that's more than nothing to worry about. We have too many things to do, both responsibilities delegated to us or those we give to ourselves. We have to many things in this material age, many of them "connected" electronically. I often wonder if we really have to see if robots will take control of humans, because in a some ways the electronics have already done that.

The connected world in which we live means we have too many relationships to start and maintain, too many devices to use, and as a result, too little time to simply sit, think and evaluate the world and our relationship to it. It might be why people are so impatient today. We drift from one thing to another, most of those experiences being confined to a shallow level. We don't even realize anymore that simply sitting on a bench and gazing into nature, the best way to "do nothing", doesn't happen much anymore. And we are less human because of it.

There is no time now to think deeply, read deeply, question deeply, because our electronic stimuli today is present and immediate centered. When I read books that are set in the pre computer/electronic age I find myself envying the simpler and more defined lives of those who contained within the books. It makes me remember my own childhood days of simplicity and yearn for more of those. But how can we escape the electronic bubble?

It's almost normal today to spend the day so busy in our electronic centered activities that we have not one single serious thought or selfless deed. No wonder society is more callous today. We have become electronic robots, driven by condition and response live Pavlov dogs to every bell tone we hear. We jump into our electronics because we can hide in them and pretend we are living life rather than actually doing it.

I wish the world would darken its electronics for just one day. What a shock it would be to those who have never lived in a world apart from them. What a chance we would have to make a choice, whether to live with out electronics or with the opportunity to simply "do nothing" once in awhile.