Are we becoming too reliant on technology?

[Pete]

Last week I set off for work and was doing fine, everything was OK until I realised I had forgotten to take my mobile phone with me!

I genuinely panicked. What if the family had to get in contact in an emergency? I have insurance companies who were looking for information from me and I gave them my mobile as contact! What if my friends rang my mobile and thought there was something wrong if I didn't answer?

I had to go home, get my mobile and be re-united with my "point of contact".

It never used to be like this even ten years ago. Fifteen years ago you were a smart-arse if you had a mobile...and if you did it was pay as you go. How has it come to this that this small accessory has now become a limb we simply can't do without? I can remember these days and in a way it's sad how we've become so dependant on such a thing which in reality, is simply a small hand-held telephone.
I get about and I reckon every one in four people I see in the street is using a phone to text or call. If the whole technology was taken away in an instant how would these people get by?...especially teenage girls.

Another one is broadband. The first thing we had to do when we moved house was get internet connection...even though none of us uses it for our work. It's as if we'd be cut off from society if we didn't have it. Totally irrational but what if we needed some information?...how would we get it??



In a way I felt free when I didn't have a mobile.

Have we changed that much in such a short space of time?

[duncs]

I think this should be a real concern for society in the future, not just the reliance on technology, but the lack of understanding of these tools.

I think there is amazing breakthroughs being made throughout the world - but can you really explain how your car works? Or how broadband works? Or anything really invented in the past two / three decades?

This could be a real problem as we may have a society that is "information" rich but not "knowledge" rich.

[Jack]

I blame the wheel.

We've been rolling downhill ever since.

[ArabHibee]

I left work last night and remembered when I got to the car park that I had forgotten my mobile. :grr:

I admit that I did panic a little and would have gone back for it had I not had an appointment for the doctor and was running late.

I too had the same thoughts about certain people who contact me by mobile worrying why I was not responding to texts, although ultimately I'm sure they would have called my land line (probably one of the few who still has one!) as a last resort to find me.

Although when I got home, I got my spare mobile out and was still able to text people on my PAYG simcard! :greengrin

[hibsdaft]

Fifteen years ago you were a smart-arse if you had a mobile...

so true :greengrin

there'll be a generation today who just wouldn't understand how that could of been.

[AFKA5814_Hibs]

The fascination many people have with having a mobile by their side 24/7 is not something that has ever interested me, nor likely to.

I have a mobile, if I have it with me and it's charged up, then fair enough, if not, no big deal. I don't like the idea of people being able to get in touch with me at any given point anyway, for that matter, I don't give my work my mobile number. :greengrin

[Hainan Hibs]

Recently moved into a flat for University and my dad and mum helped. The two biggest concerns for them were 1) TV linked up to the PS2 and 2) Internet connection. After that, mass panick erupted when it was discovered I hadn't taken my freeview box.

Food? Clothes? Cleaning stuff? Who cares?:greengrin

[Phil D. Rolls]

Yes, I think the wheel is as much a curse as it is a blessing. How will we get anywhere if one breaks?