broke kitty-- on technological alienation
Ever feel too connected?
Between cell phones, regular phones, email, instant messenger, pagers, voice mail and all the other new communication technologies, communicating with others feels like a full time job. How many of you feel like you could spend the whole day checking these devices, and getting nothing else done?
Seems like it's time to quit the regular job, whatever that may be, and
spend the day sifting through messages that do nothing more than remind you of the very fact that you're alone.
In Ireland, when someone "called" it meant that they came over, for a cup of tea, a few hours of arseing, a good conversation.
In New York and most of the U.S., a call is a phone call. In other words, connection is maintained through technology rather than through face-to-face contact. People call before they come over, before you hook up, etc., etc. Technologies become the middle man for real human contact. In one way, they facillitate communication. In another, they allow you to maintain distance. For some, the damn telephone or a fucking computer screen becomes the greatest object of intimacy.
It's too bad people can't fuck their computers or telephones. Ah, yes. We all know what's coming next-- people do!
Get ready-- a cyber personals ad is coming soon to a computer screen near you. But you're already doing that, aren't you?
--Kat La Chatte 5:37PM, 11/12/00
a few thoughts on the elections (plus poetry and links)
Email: katlachatte25@hotmail.com