Maybe the Amish are on to something.
Granted, they're a bit reactionary. But they ask a question that our culture might do well to consider: Do we use technology to raise the quality of our lives, to gain more time for leisure and to become happier people? Or do we just use it for its own sake?
E-mail has made written communication as simple and instant as a telephone call. It makes it easy to keep in touch with family, friends, colleagues and professors.
But it has also clogged our mailboxes with offers for cheap Viagra, ads for "Girls! Girls! Girls!" and earnest requests from deposed African rulers to help them transfer millions of dollars into secure bank accounts.
Instant messenger has changed the way students communicate on college campuses. We can talk to a half-dozen friends, all at once, in real time.
But we're creating a whole generation that thinks this makes sense:
fnnygrl82: then he def gave her my sn
manlystd123: oic. well i g2g. ttyl
fnnygrl82: lol
fnnygrl82: ok cu l8r
Incidentally, if people actually "lol" as often as they say they do, they're going to wind up in asylums.
Cell phones make communication possible wherever we go, but they also interrupt movies, classes and church services. There are downsides to being permanently available.
Computers have become the center of our music, our correspondence, our photographs, our creativity and our classwork -- which is great, until the computer breaks. I work for a computer company on campus, so I know the sound of panic in a student's voice when he or she has lost that one incredibly important document that can't be replaced.
It's easy to think the Amish have a fair point. It might well be that all the time we spend deleting spam, de-fragmenting hard drives, fighting viruses and answering cell phones during dinner eliminates any advantages to the technology.
That is, until something happens that reminds us of the power it has to bring people closer.
My grandparents just had their 60th wedding anniversary, and the very next day, my grandfather e-mailed pictures of the event to all his family and friends. Of all the changes in their lifetimes, they find that the most impressive.
Meanwhile, my girlfriend is spending the semester in England. The ability to send letters, photos, and songs to one another instantly can make the ocean seem just a bit smaller.
Even instant messenger -- annoying as it can be -- has its advantages.
The satellites that make intercontinental telephone calls possible are amazing. It's surreal to talk to someone who's riding a bus to Manchester while I'm sitting in my parents' living room in Indianapolis.
But it ain't cheap.
At least with instant messenger, we can have a conversation in real time for free.
My roommate is teaching himself to play the guitar. He uses the Internet to find sheet music and a new program called GarageBand to record himself and add accompaniment. The computer has unleashed his creativity.
Computers, the Internet and cell phones aren't the unmixed blessings the technological revolutionaries of the '70s and '80s expected. They've introduced their own set of problems into modern life.
But on the whole, they've brought us just a little closer together and made our lives just a little better.
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