I often stop to think about how technology is changing the world in which we live. It’s less often that I think about how technology is changing *us* and how we live in this new world. It’s clear that on the one hand we can thank technology for extending our lives and perhaps being more active and capable in those added years. On the other hand, it occassionally appears to me that technology is changing the way we participate in our society, and interact with others in it.I commute to work. The act of driving in a car, by myself, to get from place to place is an isolating experience. While it is true that I might choose to listen to the radio, or audio books, or chat on a cell phone (if I owned one) during my trip, I am nonetheless separated from all those other sods commuting right along with me. In the car, I am in a ‘bubble’ of sorts, separated from the elements, the noise of the road and other’s vehicles is reduced to an ignorable murmur. When I change lanes, I flick a lever which indicates my choice to others, but there are no pleasantries delivered with this signal. The communication is more like the quaint flag signals or semaphores used in the old Naval stories I like to read. There isn’t even the grudging acknowlegement of the existence of others commonly shared when using mass transit.

At work, it seems that people tend to hide behind their technology as much as possible. Voice mail is not a new phenomenon certainly, but I think it counts as a technology. email is more recent, and it seems that I am flooded with un-necessary email communication regarding tasks that could more easily have been resolved by a phone call or simply stopping by to ask. Instant messaging windows pop up furiously, demanding more urgent attention - but with the same impersonal tone as the emails.

Walking about town to grab a bite might afford some opportunity for social interaction, but there is a whole class of folks with whom communication, or even basic social graces are made less probable. I refer to the ‘pod-people’. These are the many people who now seem to be constantly ‘plugged in’ to some device or other which may alternately provide cellphone service or a constant stream of audio entertainment. Those who aren’t tooling about town looking like they’ve just had a run-in with the Borg, sporting a blue-tooth ear dongle, clutch video-capable cell phones, thumbs mashing the little buttons in a frenzy choosing various diversions from the little menus. These people usually seem oblivious to you, but will immediately snap into life to perform the required rituals like paying at the cash register.

Many of our entertainments have been shifted into our homes by wide-screen TVs, surround sound, DVDs, and stereo systems. Average folks are not dressing up and attending the theater anymore, the theater is in the living room, and you don’t even need to get dressed.

There are certainly incredibly powerful community building tools made possible by the growth of internet technologies, but they are also isolating technologies because they require the participant to engage the *device* through some kind of manual manipulation. This requires attention, of necessity reducing the amount of attention that can be paid to real people nearby by a proportional amount. While writing letters, composing music, or pursuing some other artistic endeavour has always required focused attention, there seem to be more layers of technology between the artist and the art than there once may have been. The days of the Irish ’session’ where musicians would bring an instrument and participate at the local pub while the pubgoers joined in song are over. It is far more likely that the gathering place will be playing recorded music at a volume that guarantees that conversation will be difficult at best.

This is not a thesis. I have no real point. It’s just stuff I was thinking. I do that occassionally.