fear of being alone

One reason these gadgets are so popular is that many folks are unable to be alone for a minute!

Many people now have "friends" on-line whom they never have seen in person.

Anything and anyone is better than being alone, hence the reliance on cellphones and IM messages!

I will not attempt to guess why, but a look at the rate of split-ups amongst married and otherwise committed people speaks for itself.

We are not able to tolerate anyone, but cannot live without some sort of relationships/friendships even if only on-line

A Challenged Senior

A story I just received:

A Challenged Senior:

At a certain age, everyone will understand this poor guy...
I thought about the 30 year business I ran with 1800 employees, all without a Blackberry that played music, took videos, pictures and communicated with Facebook and Twitter.

I signed up under duress for Twitter and Facebook, so my seven kids, their spouses, 13 grandkids and 2 great grand kids could communicate with me in the modern way. I figured I could handle something as simple as Twitter with only 140 characters of space.

That was before one of my grandkids hooked me up for Tweeter, Tweetree, Twhirl, Twitterfon, Tweetie and Twittererific Tweetdeck, Twitpix and something that sends every message to my cell phone and every other program within the texting world.

My phone was beeping every three minutes with the details of everything except the bowel movements of the entire next generation. I am not ready to live like this. I keep my cell phone in the garage in my golf bag.

The kids bought me a GPS for my last birthday because they say I get lost every now and then going over to the grocery store or library. I keep that in a box under my tool bench with the Blue tooth [it's red] phone I am supposed to use when I drive. I wore it once and was standing in line at Barnes and Noble talking to my wife as everyone in the nearest 50 yards was glaring at me. Seems I have to take my hearing aid out to use it and I got a little loud.

I mean the GPS looked pretty smart on my dash board, but the lady inside was the most annoying, rudest person I had run into in a long time. Every 10 minutes, she would sarcastically say, "Re-calc-ul-ating" You would think that she could be nicer. It was like she could barely tolerate me. She would let go with a deep sigh and then tell me to make a U-turn at the next light. Then when I would make a right turn instead, it was not good.

When I get really lost now, I call my wife and tell her the name of the cross streets and while she is starting to develop the same tone as Gypsy, the GSP lady, at least she loves me.

To be perfectly frank, I am still trying to learn how to use the cordless phones in our house. We have had them for 4 years, but I still haven't figured out how I can lose three phones all at once and have run around digging under chair cushions and checking bathrooms and the dirty laundry baskets when the phone rings.

The world is just getting too complex for me. They even mess me up every time I go to the grocery store. You would think they could settle on something themselves but this sudden "Paper or Plastic?" every time I check out just knocks me for a loop.

I bought some of those cloth reusable bags to avoid looking confused but I never remember to take them in with me.

Now I toss it back to them. When they ask me, "Paper or Plastic?" I just say, "Doesn't matter to me. I am bi-sacksual.." Then it's their turn to stare at me with a blank look.

Sometimes technology brings out the worst.

I have always marveled how rude people are when the talk on their cell phones in public. It is as though the person at the other end is hard of hearing or the connection is so bad they must shout and sometimes so loud you hardly need a cell phone to hear across the distance. The worst offenders are those who think that their foul vocabulary on their phones impresses people who are forced to listen. Walking down the street cursing at someone over th phone so all the neighborhood can hear them is really dumb. Some people should definitely remain luddites.

the 'real world'

The comment by alive - “we are not able to tolerate anyone, but cannot live without some sort of relationships/friendships even if only on-line” - really started me thinking. The reasons people immerse themselves in the electronic world probably vary greatly, but I think you are right about a decreasing ability to tolerate face-to-face and more personal communications.
When I make my occasional foray out into the ‘real world’ (we live in a remote area where there is no cell phone service) I am stunned by the driving need for people to be in constant contact with anything and everything that comes in on their devices. I thought being stunned said more about me than about them, as I have always been a more solitary, introverted person whose idea of a good time is not associated with trivial relationships or being in crowds, but I’m beginning to see it does say something about who they are and what is important to them.
It would be hypocritical of me to not recognize that I too am using an electronic forum to express myself. So, what is my motivation? I needed to find and read the thoughts and opinions of others who see through at least some of the “smoke-screens,” and to be able to express my own thoughts and opinions in what for me is a less stressful way (no physical ‘spotlight’ and time to compose my thoughts).
If a more reclusive person such as me finds value in electronic communications, I can see how and why folks who are extroverted and ‘people loving’ would absolutely relish using all the new gadgets to add to and extend what they have probably always done. I just hope good constructive communication doesn’t go more and more by the wayside with each new invention.
North of Hope - Loved the “I am bi-sacksual” comment!

Keep your eyes on the road

Thanks to computers, I met my wife, we would have never met without.

I hope I never get rum into, while some try to drive, and operate the latest tech equipment.

Just wait

... till the appliances start talking back:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRq_SAuQDec

Great Social Comments

Rafe, you're ALWAYS a breath of fresh air. This article, which in days past would be read in our daily newspaper, is exactly what most people think, but no longer are allowed to reflect on. Technology has indeed run amok, and the tool is no longer serving us: we are serving the tool.