Technology Glitches

Yesterday a good friend of mine sent me a comic about the pros and cons of the internet. It was pretty funny showing the double edged sword of almost all things on the internet, especially Facebook. As much as I love my computer, my blog, my ebook reader, email and my ipod, I find so much of the internet incredibly annoying. 

I can go on long tirades about Facebook and what a waste of time it is. I believe a lot of people are absolutely addicted to that site and they don’t see the harm it does. I very rarely visit the site and have become increasingly wary of the information I have out there. I don’t trust how quickly information about you can be gathered and used for any kind of means a person wants. I also get perturbed by the ridiculous status messages people put up at times. I don’t care if you go to the bathroom so why are you posting it up there for people to see? I just think people who are on there constantly posting don’t have much else to do.  Go take a walk around the block, go read a book, connect with people on a more personal level!

Even at work, I get frustrated with technology and I work with technology all day long. I’m tired of getting instant messaged when I am in the middle of important work. I don’t need more instant messages telling me what to do when I already know what I need to do. I also don’t like when people see that I am busy and yet they still send me stuff. My team wants us to be on instant messenger for ease of use and for easy access but it’s not easy in any way. I just get more work when I am on it and I’m getting plenty of work just by reading my emails and catering to my to-do list. 

I think what I find most disturbing about all these technology reminders and such is that they make people even more attention deficient. No one can focus on any one thing for longer than a few moments until some new piece of information comes up and replaces the prior thought.  I see it getting worse every day. The people who can’t put their smart phones down for a moment to have a conversation. Those who feel they need to have their phones as another organ to run their bodies. Sometimes it’s nice to just unplug and not have all these distractions – spend some time smelling the roses without checking if you got a text message from someone.  I wish there were some way everyone could just take a break from technology and appreciate the smaller things in life again.