Monday, October 11, 2010

Techno Addiction, Do You Have It?

Finally I am the proud owner of a brand spanking new BlackBerry. Once more technology has found a new way to infiltrate my human existence and suck me further into the scripts, codes, numbers and programs of the virtual oblivion that is technology. Technology is advancing at lightning speed and new tools are being developed everyday all to help make our lives easier. Technology are also becoming more and more integrated into our lives and instead of making life simpler, in many respects, it’s making it more complicated. This led me to wonder, are we becoming unwittingly addicted to technology and its by-products?
We live in the information age where with the touch a button we can share our inner most thoughts with thousands of people, check up on what our friends and family are doing, keep abreast on current events or even learn how to make an atomic bomb, if you’re into that kind of thing. Now we can do all of this anywhere, anytime and as often as we like. Technology has made the world smaller, people smarter and information more accessible. But technology also has a flip side – as much as it has landed the world at our finger tips it has also made us more accessible to the world. And frankly, I am finding this exhausting and my BlackBerry is making matters worse!

You see there was a time when I had to be in front of my laptop or my PC to share my mind meanderings with the world, learn about the state of the gay planet and fan my flames of fagotry, but not anymore. Now the world lives inside my BlackBerry! The world follows me around, knows where I am, knows what I am doing and knows what I am thinking. The world is staking me and is insistent on updating me twenty four hours of the day, seven days a week and 365 days of the year. Whether I am in the bathroom making a number two, having sexy time with my husband or naked sun bathing my e-mails will reach me, strangers will poke me and CNN will Tweet me.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that I will never miss a single thing. My trusty BlackBerry is sure to update me when Lindsay Lohan has her inevitable relapse, when my friends shocks the world by changing their Facebook relationships status from married to single and when Twitter wants me to know that Vigharthur from Iceland mentioned me in one of his titanic rants. Sure I can turn off these updates if they irritate me, sure I can switch my phone to bedside mode, sure I can cancel my Facebook and Twitter feeds, but I don’t because BlackBerry is evil!
When I do switch off my updates something terrible happens – I end up missing them! The absence of the chimes followed by the red flickering light indicating I have an update leaves me feeling desolate. It feels like the world has forgotten me. I know this must sound pretty pathetic, and it probably is, but the allure to be connected is a wicket curse perpetuated by my natural curiosity, and this frailty of mine is fully exploited by my obnoxious mini portal to the universe that is my phone. So, is this a curse, will my little minicomputer communicator consume my soul, destroy my actual social skills and render me void of free will?

There are many BlackBerry owners, some I know personally, whose social skills have suffered since they acquired their handheld windows to the world. They are unable to make eye contact during conversations as their eyes are firmly fixed on their phone’s screens, they are incapable of completing full sentences as they are constantly distracted, and if the date and time of an appointment is not loaded on their calendars or IM’d, Blue Toothed, SMS’d, MMS’d or E-mailed the appointment simply doesn’t exist. Some people’s entire life is loaded to their phones and the day a fatal system error occurs and the phone and SIM memory fails the world comes crumbling down, along with a complete and total shutdown of that person’s central nervous system upon the realization that their phone was last backed up more than a week ago.

And then there is BlackBerry Messenger, another “social” network devoted entirely to the BlackBerry elite, the people that shirked off IPhone. As if Facebook, MySpace and Twitter aren’t enough now there’s another network to divide your attention and some people spent every free moment chatting, or rather typing on it. It’s only a matter of time before they actually incorporate OMG, LMAO, LOL and WTF into an actual face-to-face conversation. Luckily I am not quite that far gone yet, but I fear I might be closer to the point of no return than I thought.
I’m teetering on the precipice of the matrix of avatars, profiles, screen names and Internet handles. My BlackBerry is gently coaxing me down a high-speed broadband path to complete and total connectivity, a virtual world that never sleeps, a world that’s constantly busy changing and a virtual world that doesn’t shut the fuck up! No one person is meant to be this up to speed with everything and nothing all at the same time. Information overload will one day kill us all unless we can stand up and say “Hi my name is Pierre and I refuse to be a techno addict!

With all said and done, I still love my BlackBerry but I am aware of its potential dangers. After all it comes with a manufacturing warning that reads “If you’re BlackBerry causes you any physical discomfort, please refrain from using it for a couple of hours”. Technology is changing the way we live, communicate, make friends, connect and work. It is making our lives easier, but we can easily over complicate our own lives with our useful, over used and shiny gadgets and once you cross that virtual line you will become a techno addict – an addict whose drug of choice is mostly useless information and whose quick fix is an e-mail. The Betty Ford Clinic currently has no rehabilitation programs for this kind of addiction, so user beware! Don’t become a techno addict and please make an effort to, every so often, speak face-to-face with an actual human being and not just with the ones that lives inside your BlackBerry.

Till next time.

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10 comments:

Paige said...

oh man im so addicted its disgusting...

Bitter Bitches said...

Paige, just remember there are real people out there too LOL!

Jason Shaw said...

I love technology, yet, I love stepping back in to the old ways, yesterday, I even wrote a physical letter!

Anonymous said...

I am a techno-freak. I love any and all new and exciting technology. Going on holiday the other day I realised just how much when I packed my Nokia, digital camera, video camera, ebook reader, iPod and laptop. It's safe to say that I can't bear the thought of being away from gadgets. Yet, I have recently become aware of myself spending way too much time trying to stay "connected" without really speaking to anyone. So now I've taken the necessary steps; my FB profile has been deleted. If I want to know how someone is doing, I'll call. Hearing a human voice is much better than reading a status update. And like Jason, I, too, wrote a physical letter. However, I am going through 'cold turkey' at the moment not knowing what everyone is doing at every single minute of every day, but I also feel liberated knowing I'm not a slave to my gadgets. That is until the next new and exciting one comes along! I heart Technology!!

Bitter Bitches said...

@Jason Shaw, I am so used to typing that my handwriting, that has never been great, have deteriorated to mimic that of physician. And now only pharmacists can read it!

@darkhalf, it seems like you should contact the Betty Ford Clinic to assist them in developing a rehabilitation plan. Deleting your FB profile is a huge deal. I can't imagine deleting my FB profile or my FB fan page - it would be like amputating a limb. OMG, now I am traumatized!!!!

Tony said...

I'm certainly one with the technology, and I've been online in some form for close to 20 years (anyone remember BBSs? :) ). I do find the iPhone handy for those updates or that email I forgot to send before leaving home, or the email to the bf (full of :-* ), working 150km away.

While I have a wide array of gadgetry that helps me keep in touch, I am selective. Some information, I let pass, some I don't even bother subscribing to, and there are times where I like to dissociate from the world. During gym workouts, the phone only has one job - to log my workouts. Only the bf is important enough to have his emails checked and read, everyone else has to wait.

I also enjoy getting out in the bush and enjoying nature's simple pleasures. Put the phone into silent mode (if it's within range of anything anyway!), pull out the map and compass and find my way around the old fashioned way. :)

Bitter Bitches said...

Tony, I think you raised a very important point and that is to prioritize. We should let technology enhance our lives not run it or God Forbid, take it over!

Tony said...

So true Pierre! :)

Clueless said...

Pierre,

Oh, how complicated the world has become in this technology age. I find that most of the things are helpful and I like it. But, due to the age of computers work and personal life becomes more demanding as you are supposedly able to do things faster. I love the pink Royal typewriter. I don't think that I am a techno addict...yet. Last year, due to my manyy hospitalizations adding up to 72 days...the only thing that I found that I could not live without was my telephone and only for talking and very little texting to my husband.

I also become increasingly concerned about people's face-to-face skills. Even though, it has brought us "closer together" we are also the most "disconnected."

Bitter Bitches said...

@ Clueless, "Even though, it has brought us "closer together" we are also the most "disconnected." I couldn't agree anymore!

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