Is that a Blackberry in your pocket, or are you just...oh no wait, it's just a Blackberry.
On 20/20 earlier I watched a story about Americans and their ever increasing responsibilities at work. It wasn’t that people are now working more that I found interesting, but the way that these people utilised technology to make themselves more mobile and give them an edge in their competitive modern workplaces.
That’s how they saw it anyway.
I don’t find the idea of taking calls and sorting through texts while driving all that disturbing, having partaken in that sort of behaviour myself on the odd occasion (I know I know, that’s dangerous). Nor does the idea of multi tasking to the point of working off over three types of communication device at once even make me batt an eyelid. However, I did find it somewhat surreal when a couple featured on the show said that they emailed each other from different rooms in the house rather than just talking. Or the one guy who literally had his Blackberry strapped to himself like an extra limb! Or perhaps the most interesting (disturbing) of the lot, the CEO of a firm who had phones and televisions installed in EVERY room in his house. Yes, he did take calls while in the shower. No, not video ones…
All of these people worked long hours, keeping themselves connected to the workplace virtually 24/7, for little more overall productivity or personal financial reward, which kind of seemed like they kept themselves constantly linked up in this way for other reasons (maybe just because they feel that they can't not?).
I can’t help but wonder if that distant point on the horizon called the ‘future’ has arrived…maybe we have already been enslaved by technology by making ourselves completely open to it. Is this a relationship that can last? We are by now completely physically reliant on technology, is it on its way to becoming so all consuming that people wont be able to emotionally survive without its presence? Or has that day already arrived?
That’s how they saw it anyway.
I don’t find the idea of taking calls and sorting through texts while driving all that disturbing, having partaken in that sort of behaviour myself on the odd occasion (I know I know, that’s dangerous). Nor does the idea of multi tasking to the point of working off over three types of communication device at once even make me batt an eyelid. However, I did find it somewhat surreal when a couple featured on the show said that they emailed each other from different rooms in the house rather than just talking. Or the one guy who literally had his Blackberry strapped to himself like an extra limb! Or perhaps the most interesting (disturbing) of the lot, the CEO of a firm who had phones and televisions installed in EVERY room in his house. Yes, he did take calls while in the shower. No, not video ones…
All of these people worked long hours, keeping themselves connected to the workplace virtually 24/7, for little more overall productivity or personal financial reward, which kind of seemed like they kept themselves constantly linked up in this way for other reasons (maybe just because they feel that they can't not?).
I can’t help but wonder if that distant point on the horizon called the ‘future’ has arrived…maybe we have already been enslaved by technology by making ourselves completely open to it. Is this a relationship that can last? We are by now completely physically reliant on technology, is it on its way to becoming so all consuming that people wont be able to emotionally survive without its presence? Or has that day already arrived?
posted by Anonymous at 10:02 pm
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