Dude, unplug.
So, I was mildly fascinated by this experiment by a bunch of Washington Post reporters to go for a week without e-mail and Internet, and wondering whether I could actually do it. Probably not in the real world, although I'd happily do so during a vacation week. (Seriously, last summer when we were at Crater Lake in Oregon, we had no idea what was going on in the world. Other than being utterly shocked to discover that Ted Kennedy had died while we were off doing our thing, I know I didn't really miss much about being cut off from Facebook or Google or anything else.)
Anyway, I think it'd be a good thing if more people embraced this notion of dialing down the technology. Not just all those people who are texting and driving (which, I admit, I have done, but I think the fear of ending up like Heidi Montag's plastic surgeon has finally cured me of that permanently), but the people who can't walk four blocks without using some sort of digital device.
I just witnessed a guy crossing 37th Street against the light, while talking on his cell phone and holding a Blackberry in his other hand. Which left him no hands (and apparently little attention span) to hang on to his four-year-old son, who tripped and completely face-planted in the middle of the intersection. Where there was a van heading his way.
The driver of the van was paying attention, luckily, so it wasn't as bad as it could've been, but seriously? The dad didn't even hang up his phone -- or interrupt the conversation -- to attend to his screaming, scraped-up kid whose short life probably flashed before his eyes.
Ironic, I guess, that my first blog post in months and months and months is about how technology is killing us, eh?
Anyway, I think it'd be a good thing if more people embraced this notion of dialing down the technology. Not just all those people who are texting and driving (which, I admit, I have done, but I think the fear of ending up like Heidi Montag's plastic surgeon has finally cured me of that permanently), but the people who can't walk four blocks without using some sort of digital device.
I just witnessed a guy crossing 37th Street against the light, while talking on his cell phone and holding a Blackberry in his other hand. Which left him no hands (and apparently little attention span) to hang on to his four-year-old son, who tripped and completely face-planted in the middle of the intersection. Where there was a van heading his way.
The driver of the van was paying attention, luckily, so it wasn't as bad as it could've been, but seriously? The dad didn't even hang up his phone -- or interrupt the conversation -- to attend to his screaming, scraped-up kid whose short life probably flashed before his eyes.
Ironic, I guess, that my first blog post in months and months and months is about how technology is killing us, eh?
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