A very strange thing happened to me today. A friend and I went to a place where I used to live.
There was no radio on, there was no cell phone conversation, it was all Real Life.
I went to where I had been and spoke, and walked and lived, and it felt very strange.
We went to lunch and spent three hours talking. Then I came back and I sat down, and, of course, turned on the computer.
And it was so odd to feel more ‘at home’, more ‘comfortable’ typing on a computer, reading words on a computer, than I had felt the whole day.
Jamaica did not get Internet until 1995. Before then, some of us were on BBS.
I had no connectivity at home. Only at my office. I started to pop in on the weekend to get ‘online’.
I realised this was wrong and stopped, and tried to live life and only deal with the ‘Net Monday to Friday.
I lived like this for about 12 years, then was able to get connectivity, so would be on, (in measured doses) as the expensive of the ‘Net was prohibitive.
I was off the ‘Net for a few months in 2011, then on again 24/7.
My world got smaller, my experiences were less, and going out and living became kind of like an actor taking a stage, performing, then going back to real.
I don’t like where I am at. I don’t like limiting my interactions with reality to small bytes… going to work, going to the supermarket, going to the gas station….
I wonder if I have not evolved into something other than what I was, and wonder if others feel the same.
I was at a function a few years ago, and everyone was on their cell phones. Except me, because I have a very cheap cell. I am lucky I can make phone call.
Everyone was focused on their phones when a very famous person passed by.
I was able to speak with this person and no one else saw her.
When she was gone and I sat down I must have disturbed someone near me who looked up and probably caught an image of the famous person for about a second, and asked me; “Was that…..?”
This cell phone slavery is bad, but not as bad as being chained to a computer and perhaps, preferring it to human interaction.
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Modern technology changed the lifestyle of people. The interaction had changed through the years. Some people cannot able to talk with their friends or even family personally. Most people are totally dependent on their modern gadgets.
Once in a lifetime experience, I also tried to escape in the busy lifestyle and the modernization of my country. In 2010, I decided to have a mission in an under develop country. The country is so backward in terms of modern technology. Basically, I had lived in a simple lifestyle in that country for one year. It was a great experience.
It is great to get away from technology and really live. See and hear and think and feel.
You are actually representing most of us. I was a people's person once upon a time - calling visiting, meeting and what have you. But today I prefer my mouse for company.
Me too... I had a big life... meetings all over, going all over, active... now it's like I go out and feel I left my computer home alone. I don't have a smart phone so all I can do is make calls and receive them... so at least if I'm out I am off line.
Its just a point of view, where you see it. If you think communication tech slaving us, that is your opinion. But other people might say these are just tools, things or machines to make people convenient and moving closer though the long distance communication.
I once was getting a lift... the driver got on the phone as the engine started and stayed there until I reached my destination and continued. I didn't exist.
Trolls, who are nothing in real life become powerful beings on the Internet and can insult and threaten at will. In RL they don't have the courage to tell their neighbour to turn down the radio.
The disconnect becomes more obvious and will be more obvious as time goes on.
Why do people keep saying the Internet is replacing human interaction? The Internet IS human interaction. Except for those folks who try to fool with that artificial intelligence / fake conversation crap. :)
You may be the same person here that you would be if we were having coffee at that nice place down the road. But others are not. I can think of particular scammers whose online person is not who they are.
I think those of us who spend time interacting with the public pretty much have the same 'narrative' online as off, but there are others who do not.