Albert Einstein once said that, “It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.” In a very short span of time we’ve gotten the internet, computers, cell phones, cell phones with internet, ipods and of course social networks.

We’ve created a world in which everyone and everything is connected every minute of every day; one huge technological matrix. It begs the question, can there be too much technology?

In our current world of high tech gizmos and fast paced technology, few people take the time anymore to actually talk to their fellow man. Everyone is moving so fast, caught up in their own little worlds, that they often fail to notice the people around them, let alone the rest of the world (We’ve probably all seen someone texting someone else in the same room instead of talking to each other the old fashioned way). People have their social personae, and their Facebook friends, but there is a large line between having a page full of electronic companions (who may or may not really be who they say they are), and a real flesh and blood human being.

People seem to be losing the ability to relate to other human beings (and such might have some hand in the terrible shootings we hear about on the news). Certainly people still hear, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are truly listening. Paul Simon wrote about it in his “The Sounds of Silence” lyrics back in 1964, and people have become even more disconnected with each other since then. In a world where everything is spelled out in plain text on a glowing screen, we seem to have forgotten how read the signals of our own living world.

At what point does progress become regress? At what point does moving forward actually move one backward?  It may be that we are now approaching such a point, for with everything that we gain with our modern technologies, we must also ask ourselves, what we have lost in the process. In embracing the new found “neon gods” of technology, have we in some way lost a part of our human selves? Has our addiction to technology taken a toll on our ability to communicate (the tone of a person’s voice cannot be read in a text), our grasp of patience, the skills to adapt, or perhaps even dulled our creative innovation?

In a world where everything is at our fingertips, are we losing our sense of connection to another human being, the feeling of a slower and more relaxed pace, or simply the freedom of not being having an incessant need to check emails, cell phone messages, and texts every three seconds. Is it possible for a society to advance itself into reverse?
Copyright © Amber Reifsteck ~ The Woodland Elf

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