LOSING OUR HUMANITY?
By Richard Davis

GUILFORD- Full disclosure. I am attracted to new gadgets and I am a slave to my computer. But, in the tradition of human paradox, I am also a critic of technology and the effect it is having on us.

Every time some new device is introduced into our household, a new programmable coffee maker, a new TV remote, a new computer printer, my wife threatens to chuck it all and move into a cabin in the woods with no running water and no electricity. She screams, “I can't take it anymore. Don't even show it to me.” And I sheepishly walk away and then figure out how to set up the device that she will eventually grudgingly use because I have forced it upon her.

If the device doesn't work right or she has trouble with it, it is always my fault, never the manufacturer's. I have been blamed for every product design flaw and for every kink in the operation of computer systems. It is the price I have to pay for being too enamored of technology.

I do agree with my wife in principle. These devices were presumably created to make our lives easier, to allow us more free time to relax and enjoy life. In a world that increasingly makes less sense every day, the opposite has become today's technological reality.

People of all ages have become slaves to their cell phones. They have become slaves to their computers and the Internet. It is the inevitable next step for generations whose parents and grandparents quickly became addicted to television.
I suppose there must be a few people left on the planet who are actually able to use technology judiciously, as a tool to aid with modern life. They use the Internet when they have a need. They might even buy a cell phone because they see its value as an emergency tool, but they don't make everyday calls on it and they don't give out their number.
Technology is making 21st century life nothing more than a perpetual ride on a hamster wheel. We are moving faster and faster and doing more things but we never move beyond where we are. Are we really better off now than we were before cell phones, before the proliferation of all the gadgets of modern life?
And what does better off mean? To me it means being able to enjoy the smaller things in life, having time to move slowly and take it all in and having time to be a thoughtful and sensitive human being. Most of our species is definitely not headed in that direction.
Road rage has become a new sport and the death rate from accidents caused by drivers on cell phones is climbing rapidly. People have meltdowns when their computers crash and they actually start to think their life may be in danger if they can't get their computer fixed today.
The most troubling consequence of all of this technology and the effect it is having on us has to do with our mental health. I haven't looked at statistics, but I would be willing to bet that the rate of major depression is climbing quickly. Based on advertising it seems that the sale of antidepressants must be providing healthy profits for drug companies.
One of the primary causes of depression is sensory overload. A mind can only take in so much before something bad happens. All of our technology results in millions of sensory impressions bombarding us constantly. It is like being in a new kind of cyber combat where every time something is thrown at us it creates a new kind of wound on the brain. That means that most of our brains have been damaged beyond repair.
Antidepressants, and in some cases antipsychotic medications, will help but they will not get at the root cause of the illness. As technology proliferates out of control so will the incidence of mental illness of all kinds, from addictions to depression to full blown psychoses.
Unless we can figure out how to live life in perspective and maintain the proper place of technology in our lives, we will lose the qualities that have defined us as a uniquely human species.