Technology, me and you

Ever noticed how distracted we have become nowadays. How many tasks do you start in a day and leave uncompleted only to be restarted a few hours later but randomly dropped again. Do you believe technology has made you and me closer? Is email more powerful a tool than airmail? Quoting an article from the Herald Tribune, it details how a taxi ride from CDG was more an endeavour in multitasking than another opportunity to get a tip from the street about France's underprivileged. The author claims, they spoke to each other, chatted on cellphones, watched a dvd, drove, completed an article and had a few munches and all of this in a span of 20 minutes. A more extreme view is that we are not designed to handle such a scale of mult-tasking. We have taken millions of years to evolve from tree climbing primates to farm-food fed beings . But it has taken us less than a hundred to become technologically driven homo-sapiens living on trans fat and 15 hour work days. In many cases, mine included, we are only about a generation away from having ancestors who were farmers. Worries were simple, no rain or too much rain decided whether there was going to be enough food for the table for the rest of the year. Now I am more concerned how my stock portfolio will be affected by Saddam's trial verdict than whether there will be enough grain in storage to last through the winter. Technology was for our benefit but perhaps it is not contributing to make you happier and consequently makes you less content. Its true computers have made me more efficient but I think as a result I spend more time at work, less time with the family and almost no time with the community. The sociological effects of a networked world actually mean that we know less people around us, want more privacy because we spend all our time working but are one link away from Madonna's new adopted Malawian baby. Jetlag and Carpel tunnel syndrome are my new best friends. Ironically, I peddle technology and perhaps work hard enough to be able to afford my next toy inspite of this rant. I certainly think life would have been less challenging without the added benefits of technology but whom I am to say anything. I am just another rat in a wheel!