The weight of technology
I recently came across this incredible video on one of my favorite blogs, “Shlog” written by Nashville musician Shaun Groves, and I got involved in a mini debate in his comments section.
I have experienced this shift firsthand: Online, I found Adam, we found and later sold our cars, we found our house, our travel companions, many of our friends, and my job here in Korea. We keep in touch with family and friends all over the world though email, this blog, and internet phone. Adam is completing his degree online. We get all of our news online. We conduct business online (selling my CDs and Adam’s voice and photography work). We book travel online, we buy our music online, we buy almost everything but groceries online. Technology is such a gift.
However, Adam and I have been feeling the weight of technology lately. With the conveniences available to gain more information and complete tasks quickly and with a greater scope, the information, expectations, and “noise” are becoming exponentially greater. We feel guilty for not being able to keep up with emails and phone calls (no, you’re not the only person we’re ignoring).
Our generation has the gift of meeting and maintaining more friends because of the conveniences of CouchSurfing, MySpace, high school and university alumni pages, Skype, Gmail chat, email, blogs, the ease of international travel, etc. It’s just getting overwhelming, and this video reminds us that it’s not going to slow down.
Adam and I actually talked this morning about the ramifications of a year without any long-distance correspondence other than hand-written letters. We’re not going to do that, but imagine…
