Connected?

 

Lately i've been hearing/reading people complain about how modern technology is causing humans to be disconnected from one another. Just last week I was on a train heading to SF and noticed 2 sets of people on the same train as me. One was an older man and his teenage daughter. She had her earphones plugged into her smartphone, and the entire time she was looking at her phone and not once saying a single word to her dad. Sitting on the opposite side was a woman and her teenage daughter, and again I saw the same thing: kid was so preoccupied with her device she was completely ignoring her mother.

 

 

Over the weekend I saw my family and one of my brothers complained to my dad about how no one socializes anymore because they're all busy on their smartphones. While I can agree with this to a certain degree, I found it amusing when he then went into raving to my dad about all the cool features that smart phones have, like directions and the ability to look up information within seconds.

 

 

It made me realize that this modern technology, like everything else in life, has it's ying and yang, it's good and bad. While it may keep people from socializing more, in some cases that's not a bad thing, as certain people are not worth socializing with and you find yourself thanking the powers that be for that smartphone that allows you to ignore them. And then I think about how some days i'll be somewhere, minding my own business, and I suddenly get a text or message or e-mail from someone, and next thing I know i'm out and about with this person/persons, doing something fun. That wouldn't happen as often without my smartphone.

 

 

I think i'm at the perfect age where I can appreciate the good things that this modern technology has, while not getting too caught up in it because I grew up without it and can recall life before it. And I do enjoy interacting and socializing with strangers... just not all of them.  ;-)