Is Technology the Cause of Global Indifference?
Is Technology the Cause of Global Indifference?
by Connie H. Deutsch
In the days before television became a staple in most people's homes, you sat around the radio and listened to the news. President Roosevelt had his Fireside Chats once a week and Churchill's voice reverberated over the airwaves. People visualized what was happening in the world and families had discussions about world events. There was a connectedness that people felt toward one another.
With the advent of television, it wasn't necessary to visualize much of anything. The atrocities of war were brought into the living rooms of most homes; people now ate their dinner while watching the blood and guts gushing out of victims' bodies on the evening news. Within a short period of time, people became inured to the violence they were seeing because it was there every time you turned on the television. And, little by little that feeling of connectedness to one another diminished.
There used to be much more involvement in the lives of one's neighbors. Nowadays, that interest has become a very superficial kind of caring, activated mostly when a person is pulled into the undertow of someone else's emotions which happen to crisscross his own problems.
The world has become a busier place. The nuclear family has disappeared and technology, with the emergence of the super highway of information being spewed out by computers, has contributed to this feeling of detachment.
People sit at their computers, hiding behind screen names, and vent their anger and frustration in their daily lives at other people, who are also hiding behind screen names. There is a community of online relationships that have sprung up as a result of the instant reaching out across the Internet to the anonymous masses, and all these factors contribute to the feeling of detachment from people in the real world.
But the sword cuts both ways. While there is no doubt that the computer has played an enormous role in keeping people isolated from each other, it has also played an enormous role in keeping other people connected to society.
I can't tell you the number of times I have given clients the homework assignment of not allowing them to be online because it is taking them away from their responsibilities and causing a disconnect in their relationships. Conversely, I can't tell you the number of times I have given clients the homework assignment of going on message boards to keep them interested in the world around them and to make some online friends when they are feeling isolated. This is especially true of shut-ins and people who can't get around to join organizations to meet people.
Common sense and responsibility can't be legislated but it would save an awful lot of relationships if they could be. While we have seen the positive effects of technology, we have also seen huge numbers of people becoming addicted to their computers and cell phones. They can barely exist without checking their E-mails and texting their network of family and friends.
And, before you object to the term, addiction, try to give up your computer and cell phone for one week and see if you don't go through the same type of physical, emotional, and psychological withdrawal symptoms that an alcoholic or drug addict does. My bet is that you will experience some of the tremors, headaches, anxiety, depression, racing heart, sweating, nausea, social isolation, and poor concentration that any addict does. It would also be a good test to see how deeply you are being affected by your usage of modern technology.
Questions and Answers
Article Tags:
computers
,television
,cell phones
,texting
,online relationships
,message boards
,technology
,internet
,screen names
Please go through these pages, at least once, as and when you have some leisure time. Today, the age of competition, the collection may be useful for the students, who are preparing for their competition examinations.
A fanatic vegetarian out to convert non-vegetarians. The word vegangelical comes from vegan and evangelical. A vegangelical is someone who thinks that any other lifestyle choice besides veganism is wrong. The word usually used in the West, first made its appearance in print in 2003.
A great deal has been made of in alternative archaeology books about how and why our technologically primitive ancestors were able to carve out, transport and erect massive multi-ton stone blocks into megalithic monuments. Since there is no doubting the existence of these structures, our ancestors must of in fact possessed an advanced technology or had assistance from those who did (i.e. – ‘ancient astronauts'). That runs contrary to scholarly archaeology. But the questions remain.
Recently, a report was published by a Hong Kong Media. According to the report, the latest public opinion survey among the Americans and Chinese shows that there has been a slight improvement in the mutual impression of people of these two countries to each other. But to build a deep trust between them, there is still a long way to go.
Increasingly, couples are seeking a more constructive and less expensive alternative – Collaborative Divorce. In Collaborative Divorce, attorneys, mental health professionals and financial specialists work together with the couple to resolve all issues by agreement without going to court.
Ketubah is a Jewish prenuptial agreement or marriage contract which contains the all the responsibilities to be fulfilled by a couple after marriage. People like to keep their Ketubot as it is for a long time and want a unique Ketubah to be designed for them. If you are also one of them then you must go with custom Ketubah designed by a well known expert and do not forget to choose budget Ketubah otherwise it may affect your affordability.
For most people a living room is the hub of the home, where people relax and socialise with family and friends. The word ‘living room' was first used in the nineteenth century but in reality they existed well before this. The way that living rooms have been used, their décor and their furnishings have changed significantly over time.
When a man says he's not the marrying kind, believe him. Don't try to change him.
We have a growing culture of children who have no respect for their parents and that is probably because their parents are not acting like the adults in the family. In too many families, it's the children who are making the rules and the parents who are yielding to their demands.
Of all the things that make people feel inadequate or boring, running out of things to talk about ranks near the top. When the mind goes blank, and you can't think of anything to say, you start to feel like the most boring person in the universe.
Whenever the government tells us they are passing a law to protect us, it's just their way of saying that another one of our civil liberties will be taken away from us.
Public libraries are sending policemen to the homes of little children to retrieve overdue books that children have borrowed. One boy was sentenced to ten days in jail for failing to return his overdue library books after several months and multiple overdue notices.
Discuss this Article
