The Computer Age has inevitably changed our lives. The majority of us have wed ourselves to machines, for better or for worse! In many instances, it has become the only acceptable way to communicate. Jobs are now predominantly found online, no longer in newspaper classified ads. When applying for jobs or submitting resumes, it’s all virtual. The same for journalism articles — hard copy isn’t even accepted anymore by most publications.
We are, in a sense, forced into compliance to gain knowledge of computers, otherwise opportunities will continue to become severely diminished as time goes on.
Smart phones are our closest link to the god presence. According to Accura Cast News, one billion smart phones were sold last year, and it is projected that sales will triple by 2016. That means that one half of the people on the planet will own them.They are the voice of authority. Like computers, their superpowers include providing us with almost instant worldwide imaging and information on any topic imaginable. They tell us how to get from place to place. They tell us where to go and what to buy when shopping. They have superior knowledge, and likewise, they give it to us.
They eliminate a lot of life’s former activities, such as reading a map, searching through a card catalogue for a book, having good penmanship, or even having books themselves in a library! Many are phasing them out.
But the loss of nostalgic methodology is far from the greatest lament. The question is: Are we losing our ability to “know”? Can we still feel our emotional connection to our likes and dislikes, or to our intuition when making decisions?
The feeling of helplessness and not knowing what to do concerning the best course among many options is symptomatic of the fact that we’re giving our power away to mechanical instruments, and allowing them to make our decisions for us.
We lose cognate experience and a sense of adventure when, rather than doing outdoor activities, we stay indoors and live vicariously. This god is exacting in that it de-personalizes our communication with others. We may feel secure hiding behind the white screen, but we lose the personal touch: voice inflection, body language, rapidity of conversation, even the number of words we use! The mouth is quicker than the hand!
In truth, and here’s the scary part, we don’t even know for sure whether the person we’re talking to (or the product, or the organization) is real or not. They could be imaginary, or a scam, and we have no way of guaranteeing otherwise, unless we have experienced it personally, or someone we know has. The distinction between virtual and real reality is constantly being questioned.
And this is why the new god’s creation is a mixed blessing — somewhat dangerous, in fact. Yes, it has given us superpowers, but there is a cost. It can take the following from us:
- Trust: we never know for certain what is real.
- Responsibility to control our lives: if machines will do the job for us, we no longer need to physically explore life or know how to do things.
- Intuition: we lose the emotional connection to making choices and knowing what to do. We let the machine tell us.
Here are a few future inventions coming our way that further illustrate this:
- The driverless car: It’s in the experimental phase. It speaks for itself (pun intended).
- Robot assistants/care givers: They’re replacing humans in so many work areas, from operating on patients, to being primary caregivers in nursing homes, to name only a couple. This is a sacrifice of human jobs.
- Drones: They take away our privacy rights with the ability to see through walls into our homes. And they can take away someone’s life when directed to do so.
The price we pay for a technological machine-oriented world is high. It is not an option any longer to attempt to go back to the way things were. It’s not about giving up our devices, our Playstations or Xboxes. It’s about giving away our power to a super-information device that will control us if we let it.
The lesson here is to continue to pay attention to ourselves before doing what the machine says. Check in and see if you really want to — if it feels right.
Don’t give up your own will, personal control of life and self-leadership. Exercise your discernment in deciding reality from virtuality. Don’t be afraid to deviate from the prescribed directions, if you think you know a better way, trust it and follow yourself!
And lastly, don’t allow yourself to give up the personal connection when communicating. Let’s keep ourselves real and safeguard against losing ourselves in a virtual world.
