Follow Up...

First of all, thanks for all the responses. I'm glad that I'm not the only person that has these inklings that all is not well in the era of the techno-takeover... I like the ring of that, that term already taken Ted? Well anyways....

I'd like to start off with a quote from Neil Postman which i really believe sums up one aspect of my thoughts and maybe what Sarah and Jenna are alluding to--

"The uncontrolled growth of [communications] technology destroys the vital sources of our humanity. It creates a culture without moral foundation. It undermines certain mental processes and social relations that make human life worth living."

When the day comes- and it will unless some things change (like me being the supreme ruler of the galaxy!)- that people rely entirely upon digital technology for communication, when we absolutely ignore all those physically around us unless they are using the same technology.... will we still be considered humans?

Now this far-fetched (or not so far-fetched) idea of mine (and others) brings me to Ted's questions: "why is convenience bad? How does technology contribute to it? How, then, does technology promote conditions that support laziness? "

Convenience isn't bad per-se, but like everything else there is a balance:

Lets be honest here, if i didn't have a remote control for my TV, I would turn it on, find the first channel that appealed to me, sit my lazy ass down on the couch and watch that channel (stupid subway commercials and all) until I was bored of the TV, really wanted to change the channel, or that stupid subway monkey drove me homicidal. Thankfully i own a remote control, and i haven't killed anybody over my pathological hatred for the subway advertisers. But I digress......The advent of the remote control and other devices like it (any real-time comm. tech.), not only breeds the conception that switching our focus is as easy and convenient as the "flick of a switch" and requiring minimal physical manipulation, but this expectation also becomes a standard demand on all future technologies.

The advent of portable digital communication devices are the product of this. As we have discusses in class, all the lines that society has constructed are being blurred: you can be somewhere, but not physically there. Convenient huh? Sure it enables us to be more efficient and effective, but to what ends??? So we can create more technology that makes things more efficient and effective and convenient? So we can be efficient and effective while conversing with friends, so we can be efficient and effective while pondering our lives or the meaning of life itself? I don't even have time around all this digital saturation to ponder the meaning of life anymore... not to mention it has apparently already been answered: to be efficient and effective.... and convenient.

When McLuhan says "The medium is the message"... the message is that we value convenience over all else. And where is the balance to that?

Lazy expectations that everything should be easy, that everyone is always and readily available, and more frighteningly, a laize-farre approach to the direction that technology is leading us... as long as it makes life "easier" . And Jesse ( sorry to pick on you) when you say that, " I think it's another way to connect" I would have to disagree with you and say its just a way to disconnect from the things that are really important, and essential, in this world, and distracting all the while. We should start asking some questions before our porty-digi-tech has us completely distracted.

However, allow me to finish on a bright note, and another quote from the MC of the comm. world and say, "There is absolutely no inevitability as long as there is a willingness to contemplate what is happening."and contemplate i will... until heroes is on... or the canucks game... or.... you get the idea.

Electronic borg implan.... err... electronic devices we all carry.

I've got one and so do you: our electronic media companions! The whole world is at our finger tips, or so we think. But why the heck do we need everything so damn convenient? are we really that lazy? Excuse my language please, but it really seems that our society is far to indulgent in all this new technology. What are the consequences? Is society composed of rampant technophiles... or am I just a technophobe? The answer probably lies somewhere in the middle (as most answers do). This blog is dedicated to my observations of people and their relationships to their personal hand held devices, where these personal relationships are leading us and our society in general. Feel free to follow along and rip my opinions apart if you feel the need; I love a good argument, or academic debate I should say... something of which cannot be adequately captured in a T9 text message.

On a side note: as I'm typing this, the person directly opposite me on the library computer desk is currently "plugged in" to three different computer devices... his Ipod, palm pilot, and the computer he is working on... and he's avoiding my eye contact at all costs.