Highway to the Danger Zone
Gonna take you right into the Danger Zone
-Kenny Loggins, Danger Zone, from the movie Top Gun
Last week I started talking about how technology dominates our lives. I never quite got there since I was having some fun reminiscing about my old days in business, but I’m glad I started.
The subject evidently touched a nerve with some people, some who are adamant that there is no problem with our ever-growing dependence on technology, others who’ve witnessed the increasing obsession with gadgets and the problems it creates.
To all of you who don’t see a problem with our obsession with hi-tech gadgets, I do acknowledge that technology has afforded us unbelievable benefits. We see things instantly, can communicate instantly, can find almost anything in the world, including long lost friends and our genealogy, with only a few clicks of the mouse. We can carry this ability around with us, even in our pockets. The scope of what we can do is simply unbelievable, especially to people who lived without such benefits for so many years.
But I also say that this ability to be completely and totally “connected” at every single moment of every single day is changing the kind of people we are and how we deal with each other. To me, that puts us very close to “the Danger Zone”.
Case in point number one: I was the gym last night and saw a young man in the free weights area with his phone on the floor right next to him. He’d lift a few reps, then grab for his phone and scroll through his messages, lift, scroll through messages, etc. etc. After he was done lifting, he ventured into a different area of the club, walking through the crowd, eyes glued to his phone while he walked and scrolled. He then bowled over a young lady who was stretching, knocking her flying. Didn’t even see her, and barely offered an apology.
Case in point number two: we sat next to group of people at a new Mexican restaurant over the weekend. Should have been wild, and for the most part it was. Most of the group was engaged in rather lively banter, certainly influenced by their rather rapid margarita consumption. But one person was glued to their phone, scrolling through tweets or Facebook comments, not sure which, doesn’t matter. They never looked up, never participated in the conversation. They basically were ignoring everyone they were with, so absorbed were they in whatever critical information their phone contained.
I could present many more examples, but I think these make the point. We, in general, are becoming a very insensitive society. Bonding with your phone instead of interacting with the people you’re with is downright rude.
I’ve taken a little crap for my viewpoint that we don’t interact enough, certainly face-to-face or even talking on the phone, but I’m sorry, I don’t think we do. I’m afraid that more and more, we don’t talk WITH each other, we talk AT each other. If we talk at all.
While this addiction to technology doesn’t affect all of us, it does affect a lot of our interactions. And it’s dangerous. You’ve all seen the teenager driving with one hand and texting with the other, swerving all over the road. And its not limited to teenagers either.
It evidently extends into motorcycle riding as well. Jay Leno, a big motorcycle enthusiast and a damn good rider, was quoted recently as saying: “What’s frightening these days is that everybody’s eyes are down. They’re looking at their cell phone or texting as they approach the light. They know the light is red, and their eyes immediately go down to their laps. They’re not looking for you, and they don’t see you. You could end up getting knocked on your head.”
Well said. We need a balance. Somehow, someway. I’m just not sure how we get there.
