Techno Over Reliance

The technological era is an amazing thing, and the world is ever smaller given the means now at our disposal to contact each other right the way across the planet. Letter writing is a lost art form, having been usurped by email; and now no one needs to make a phone call either thanks to the invention of text.
For starters the grammatical ability of future generations is going to go right down the pan thanks to the invention of the ultimate communicative laziness which is "text speak". I regularly have to send texts back to people asking them to translate because I have absolutely no idea what they've just "said" to me, whilst I on the other hand have the gentle mocking from my friends because apparently I text exactly how I speak, plus I'm a freak for grammar and punctuation. Nothing wrong with that!

Anyway, I think we as a population have now reached the point in over reliance on the technology available to us. When was the last time you got up from your desk at work to walk over to another person's desk to have the necessary conversation. I myself manage to have long (and comical) exchanges with the person two desks away from me, all using the medium of instant messaging... The most actual personal contact involved is when one of us sends the word "coffee" to the other and at that point we might actually disengage from the flashing screen in front of us and interact with the real world.

Emails now rule the offices of the world, both internally and externally. It is rare now to phone someone to query a situation, when typing up a quick email and hitting the send button makes it so much easier. In some instances I think it's true that it's a better idea, for example I need to interact with people within my company but with a time difference that makes phone contact difficult if not impossible. The problem now is the technology of email removes us slightly from the situations we find ourselves in, to the point that some find the need to copy every single person under the sun onto each one of their emails and we can distance ourselves from the recipients enough that a "pass the buck" attitude is easily cultivated. After all, a complaining or whinging email is just that thing we typed, the receiver is just a name in an address book, they're not really real!

I wonder what would have happened if the predicted Y2K bug had really happened. If all the technological systems of the world had one hell of a hissy fit and died. Have we become so reliant on them that we would struggle to function or would we adapt? Going back to simpler times appeals to some, though I'm not too keen on returning to the caveman dating attitude as I've never really enjoyed being clubbed unconscious by some neanderthal after a bit of fun, and living just on the outskirts of London with or without the tech I've witnessed enough of that going on!

Imagine going without your computer for one day, just one, oh hold on a second without that computer how are you going to read my inspired words of wisdom...?! Hmmm, techno withdrawal fail...