The end of the world as some of us know and love it is here. The new electronic world order is well established and we cannot escape it: instant communication, computers in every office, class, and living room, the internet, immediate access to an infinity of data, online databases, proliferating networks and modems, e-mail and social media connecting everyone, the information highway inexorably flowing straight through one’s life at work and play.
Make no mistake. It has happened in the developed world and it is happening everywhere. Even if you want to opt out it will be impossible to do so. In the age of the motor car there are no horse-drawn buggies left to drive. Candles are romantic but electricity is essential.
However, even if drowning in the digital deluge is inevitable one doesn’t have to like it. I, for one, loathe this new world, this worship of the God of undigested data. It means that people read less, think less, meet less. Relationships become impersonalized and activities become programmed. Human contact is increasingly lost or relegated to also ran. In any group of ten young people three or four or more will always be distractedly messaging on their iPhones instead of listening/talking to flesh and blood. Computers and networks isolate us from one another. It is simply a more unpleasant world in which to live. The internet flashes its message of knowledge-as-power, summoning us to surrender our real leisurely and lovely time on earth. This brave new world spells the end of
