Losing Touch
Steve, a typical Canadian, stays home on workdays. He plugs into a computer terminal in order to hook up with the office, and he sends and receives work during the day by e-mail and a fax-modem. Evenings, he puts on his stereo headhphones, slides a movie into his DVD-player, or logs back onto the computer to spend time online. On many days, Steve doesn't talk to any other human beings, and he doesn't see any people except those on televison. Steve is imaginary, but his lifestyle is very common. More and more, the inventions of modern technology seem to be cutting us off from contact with our fellow human beings.
The world of business is one area in which technology is isolating us. Many prople now work alone at home. With access to a large central computer, employees such as secretaries, insurance agents, and accountants do their jobs at terminals in their own homes. They no longer actually have to see the prople they're dealing with. In addition, employees are often paid in an impersonal way. Workers' salaries are automatically credited to their bank accounts, eliminating the need for paycheques. Fewer people stand in line with their coworkers to receive their pay or cash their cheques. Finally, personal banking is becoming a detached process. Customers interact with manchines or pay bills online rather than contacting people to deposit or withdraw money from their accounts. Even some bank loans are approved or rejected, not in an interview with a loan officer, but through a display on a bank's website.
Another area that technology is changing is entertainment. Music, for instance, was once a group experience. People listened to music in concert halls or at small social gatherings. For many people now, however, music is a solitary experience. Walking along the street or sitting in their living rooms, they wear headphones to build a wall of music around them. Movie entertainment is changing, too. Movies used to be social events. Now fewer people are going out to see a movie. Many more are choosing to wait for a film to appear on cable television. Instead of being involved with the laughter, applause, or hisses of the audience, viewers watch movies in the isolation of their own living rooms.
Education is a third important area in which technology is separatingus from others. From elementary chools to colleges, students spend more and more time sitting by themselves in fromt of computers. The computers give them feedback, while teachers spend more time tending the computers and less time interacting with their classes. A similar problem occurs in homes. As more families by computers, increasing numbers of students practise their math and reading skills with software programs instrad of with their friends, brothers and sisters, and parents. Last, alienation is occurring as a result of other high-tech inventions: CDs and DVDs. People are buying CDs and DVDs on subjects such as cooking, real estate incestment, speaking, and speed-reading. They then practise their skills at home rather than taking group classes in which rich human interaction can occur.
