“It is not possible to make a LASTING compromise between technology and freedom, because technology is by far the more powerful social force and continually encroaches on freedom through REPEATED compromises.”
The current stresses of society causes us to always be connected. I think we are personally losing something that our grandparents were able to and that is to just disconnect from everything. The Japanese have a word that is Boketto. The word loosely translates to the act of gazing vacantly into the distance.
We are not calling our friends anymore, we are either texting them, emailing them, instant messaging them or using insanely small emoticon to express ourselves. I think it is pretty sad that are losing the fine art of communication. One of the reasons that mankind evolved was because we able to communicate with people around us to advance our situation. Vocalizing our words has much more power then the typed/texted word can ever be. Just imagine if Tony Montana in the movie Scarface texted the F-Bomb instead of screaming it? Reading it just doesn't have the same in your face effect that hearing it does. (Even when you know the source)
It is really sad that we cannot even enjoy our lunch break anymore with out being glued to our phones. It is not like we are even reading the paper on phone. We are on some social media site seeing how many likes on same over shared image or video that has been bouncing around for the last two years. We are also sharing some ridiculous urban legend that could be proved wrong by using simple common sense or a search engine.
Wouldn't it be nice if we could enjoy out coffee break with out picking up out phones? Being able to disconnect is extremely important for our mental health. I truly believe that we are causing undue stress on ourselves by not disconnecting. I wonder what the long term mental heath effects that it is going to have.
“All work and no play makes jack a dull boy. ”
We cannot even enjoy a minute of piece and quiet when we are commuting to and from work or school. Even our cars are now connected to the web. (Or is it the web is connected to our cars) We used to be able to just chill and stare off into space. TALK to the person next to us on the train. We knows what we are missing by this or the life long friends we could make by talking to our fellow commuters.
Ansel Adams said that “The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it.” Today it is more about the 12 inches in front of us more then anything else. The chiropractic community must truly love what our phones are doing to our postures.
Don't get me wrong; I love technology and most of its benefits. I just wish the society used it a little differently. Wouldn't it be nice if we could just chill and reconnect with ourselves? But this might be easier said then done. We have gone so far done this path, it will be hard to stop.
I am going to end this another quote from Ted Kaczynski that probably explains the path that we have gone down.
“Imagine an alcoholic sitting with a barrel of wine in front of him. Suppose he starts saying to himself, “Wine isn’t bad for you if used in moderation. Why, they say small amounts of wine are even good for you! It won’t do me any harm if I take just one little drink...” Well you know what is going to happen. Never forget that the human race with technology is just like an alcoholic with a barrel of wine.”