To Disappear
There are three ways to look at technology – the good, the bad, and the ugly. And ironic as it already is, all reasons for the three lead to one answer: connectedness, or some form of it.
Let me clarify.
The good thing about technology is that it allows us to connect to people. Old friends, lost acquaintances, distant relatives, all of them can be accumulated in one web application, one software, one mouse-click. We are given so much option to connect to almost everyone anywhere in the world; relationships are formed through electric messages sent over through wires (or radio signals and frequencies) and the world feels much less daunting, smaller even. We realize, in this day and age of Facebook and Flickr and news aggregators, that the far side of the world isn’t that far after all.
The bad thing about technology is that it allows us to take things for granted. This ease of communication can also cause us to tune out so easily. We think that foregoing that conversation with mom on the phone or calling a rain check on dinner with friends is okay because we can always go online, craft an apology email, and click send. Distance is all but relative, we say. Video chat is the answer to long distance relationships, online photo albums make us feel like we hadn’t missed anything, virtual flowers and pets become our bribe for forgiveness and an excuse to not connect on a level that is beyond our screens. Our Friends Lists are exploding by the thousands, but which of our friends’ lives can we really keep up with when we can hardly live out our own? How many of those contacts can you honestly say you have a real connection with?
The ugly thing about technology is that it’s a love-hate relationship. We cannot live with it but, at the same time, we cannot live without it. We are slaves to the hyper realities we have crafted for ourselves. We are, and this is evident in blogs and wiki pages, creators and consumers. We are caught between the fine line of connection and disconnection. We are paradoxes. We are oxymorons of our existence.
The beautiful tragedy of our day is that, if you are depressed as I am, one can easily disappear when need be. How? Just by logging off. I can disappear from the face of the planet (or the world wide web) by not connecting. Because honestly, I don’t think anyone knows how to get in touch with me that does not involve the Internet.
***Scott Brown made an insightful article on Wired.com about Facebook Friendonomics. Read all about it here. He’s right, you know, about friends and why we need to lose them.
