Technoslave
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Once, while I was riding on a crowded bus, the man sitting next to me threw his cell phone out the window. When his phone rang, instead of dutifully answering it, he casually tossed it away. I was stunned. He looked at me, shrugged and looked away. I had no idea if it was his, if it was stolen or if he even knew what a cell phone was. But in one seemingly careless motion, he managed to liberate himself from something that has completely consumed me.
When my cell phone rings, it's an incessant and incensed vibration that demands my immediate attention. I curse its calling, but am unable to refuse. Whether I'm in the middle of a conversation, in the shower or sound asleep, the ringing causes such panic and excitement that I feel forced to answer.
"The pressure to answer the pulse or ring in a flash has Technoslaves hopping to grab the message, scrambling away to find clearer signals and/or deal with the urgency of the moment as though it borders somewhere on the fringes between life and death," writes The Trends Journal editor Gerald Celente." ... And for what, to say hello, to bitch and moan or do business on the phone?"
Technology is supposed to free us from the shackles of work and give us more leisure time. But it has proven to do the exact opposite. A 2005 Leger Marketing survey for the technology newspaper Computing Canada found that the majority of people feel technology has meant more work and less time with the family. Whether it's cell phones, Blackberry's, video games or email, we have become a culture enslaved by our electronics.
As people fall further into their personal gadgets, scientists and psychologists are now beginning to classify technology dependency as a major health problem, putting it in the same categories as alcoholism, gambling and drug addiction. The stress it creates is causing arthritis, migraines and ulcers. These physical attachments are causing weight gain, back problems and bad skin. But most troubling, it is having a powerful impact on our personal development. It seems the more 'connected' we are, the more detached we become.
"Humans are being trapped in a high-tech cycle that is freezing their minds away from living in the moment, looking at life and taking in what's around them," writes Celente. "While technology has radically altered the externals of life, it has done nothing demonstrable to enhance the internals: moral, emotional, philosophical and spiritual values."
As I stare blankly into a computer screen for hours on end, sometimes I wonder if there's a secret message hidden in this technological maze. But the more I stare, the more I keep coming up with the same answer: I am trapped.
30 comments on the article “Technoslave”
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turbo
I think online liquid life is about the strive for perfection. People craft their image and words carefully at the personals sites and it is safer than confronting people in the real world, less uncomfortable. People want everything to be easy and safe and perfect, they can make their myspace or facebook page that way easier than they can make themselves that way.
Krs
If you stay in it for too long your mind becomes enslaved and it is impossible to plug out........Do you ever find yourself feeling aggrevated or annoyed when someone disturbs you while you are on the web....or that weird disengaged feeling you get after plugging out after long hours on the web.....it's real fool.
Matt
Sorry to be controversial, but in a world where meatspace relationships and social arrangements are such that nobody knows their neighbours because of paranoia and envy not due to online processes I believe there is a levelling and ultimately socialist trend in online networking. Yes it can be addictive, but so can exercise, food and stimulants. Anything that draws likeminded people together and allows them to communicate freely on subjects of their choice in an environment where they feel comfortable should be applauded in a time when personal freedom is being eroded.
TiM
The allure to the web for me is the ability to cooperate in a/the virtual community without actually having to be at any particular place. Like this comments option for this article for instance, after writing my comment, I can visit other sites, go pay attention to actual reality, or do just about anything but and not excluding hang out on this page and wait for someone else to comment after me. But I am still part of the conversation, so after a few hours or the next time I am on the net, I can check up on this page and read up on the conversation that is taking place by way of proxy and over time, amended. I do spend a lot of time on the net, but I try to use it like any other tool; an extention of my 'self'.
Leilakin
I met my husband of 3 years online in a game - World of Warcaft. Some of my best friends live across the planet and we have never met in person, yet we celebrate birthdays, console one another, and communicate every week. I feel that the internet allows for the creation of meaningful and real social networks, communities, and structures.
I don't feel that plugged in to a liquid life, detached from reality feeling that is alluded to by Bauman and other. When someone identifies internet socializing as something bad it reveals their lack of understanding or identification with online communities that are made up of real people.
Steve
As a person who wasted literally wasted 85 days over 3 years of his life playing World of Warcraft as an escape from real life disappointment, technological escapism destroyed several very important relatinships in my life, as it replaced actual social interaction. It is however, my own fault. But this liquid love or life despite being an increadible tool of connection with numerous other communities and individuals who otherwise would have no contact, poses a danger to social behaviour and one's ability to interact and deal with the real world. This does mean that techonological societies such as Massive Multiplayer Online games are terrible, but they do pose serious dangers, which need serious answers. As in my case, a certain amount of escapism isn't bad, its when it replaces your surrounding environment and replaces reality, that it becomes destructive. This dilema is just the beginning of today's techonoligical advances, and is the beginning of a systemic problem that will only grow in the near future.
finn
The thing for me is that virtual communication has a history. That history is rooted in the U.S. nuclear missle program, DARPA, and then progressively, these rooms filled with glowing 'microsoft blue' spread throughout our society: banks, libraries, schools, even prisons, etc. and now that glowing screen, that humancomputer interface is in our homes. In addition to that is the fact that facetoface interaction is really a mysterious, beautiful, spiritual thing where you have all of these perceptual and expressive processes going on that nourish you and teach you. These relationships are how we SURVIVE! In my opinion, we are meddling in a military, sometimes called 'cyborg' technology with some of our most vital processes with these liquid relationships. Yes, the power and the speed are exhilirating and allow us to do things our parents barely even dreamed of. I agree with Matt that there is immense paranoia, and I think that is a suburban phenomena to a large extent. I also agree with Krs, that these media are habitforming. Addiction to a closed system of information, which the web is, as opposed to say looking at a flower, is spiritually dangerous for us. Can we really afford to zone out NOW? in 2008? with all that is on the lineno pun intended?
rehash
Great article to read while I read Brave New World for the first time. It costs nothing to go say hey to your physical neighbour. Unless he or you is a real asshole, odds are, you won't be subjected to thirty seven different ads on the way over. You probably won't have to pay a subscription fee, either. But saying hey to your physical neighbour keeps no factories busy. exclusively online relationships can be meaningful. How does your Chinese friend's birthday cake taste, though? What's it like to walk into your Aussie friend's house? Might as well do away with your body and hardwire yourself in. I design computers by profession, and have a degree in software development, so Luddite is not an easy label to throw in my direction.
Priax
Part of this ongoing problem with this so-called liquid life is that we are not offering classes to educate our children committed to the concepts of responsible Internet usage. Parents nowadays are catching up to their kids' knowledge of the Internet. We need to start educating our kids and parents about the dangers of technology and Internet addiction/withdrawl. Priax IN, age 23.
Abe
I think that a lot of what this article is addressing has to do with a more broad concept/idea. The concept I am referring to is that of control. Liquid Life allows for a false sense of control. In games such as: W.O.W. people are allowed to control individuals. On a social network as that of myspace, people have more control over how they present themselves to others. I think that this only furthers to show the intense desire that people have to be in control of something within their life. Technology is just the vehicle by which this is more readily seen.
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