Technology does it Isolate u?

The technological advancements and their uses, seems to have created a secluded society. A careful analysis will prove the fact that, technology has brought people together and has also offered solutions to remove loneliness. It is up to us to do a balancing act.

The normal populace, think that people have become lonelier, by the arrival of the television, computer, and most of all internet etc. It is because they see only one side of the coin. Let us take a typical scenario, where somebody visits a hospital. And while strolling around hospital, he sees a doctor engrossed in thought over a computer screen. The normal thought wave, would be to doubt the doctor as a malingerer. But actually the doctor is guiding another doctor, say in Timbuktu, to operate on a very difficult case. This misunderstanding is the normal shortcoming of human beings, we tend to take things for granted. This kind of wrong assumptions is very much synonymous to blaming the technological tools for creating a secular society.

Technology offers you a variety of means to communicate with people across the world. Using which we are currently able to give demo's, hold conferences, advice students, provide counselling etc over the web. From a companies perspective it reduces the cost of holding a demo etc. It also enables quicker decision cycles and best of all reduces the overhead for a company.

On the other hand, a obsession over the technological tools, is bound to make this world a seclusive society. Because nowadays, the technological tools, tend to remove direct human contact as much as possible. Let us suppose, you want to buy a Digital camcorder, all you have to do is log on to the net and choose the product you want. Wherein you could also compare features, prices and so on. And once you have decided on the product, you can pick the product and enter your credit card details, and voila, the product will reach you! Is'nt it amazing, to buy a product, without any human intervention. Yes it is! It is ok for some occasions, but not for all, because we loose that sense of personal touch.

There could be some instances, where we need to have the human intervention, to guide us through. Suppose you want to buy a couch, and you enter into a furniture shop. The shopkeeper walks you through the features of the couch, and recommends that a particular one is fast moving, and so on. But you are not comfortable with the couches in display, so you explain that you need something that is cosy and comfortable. The shopkeeper immediately points that you might need a foldable couch cum bed, which will be more appropriate for your need. And finally you end up buying that. This is one of the scenarios where we would appreciate a human intervention rather than logging into the net and buying one.

Technology as such offers you various means to achive whatever you want. The concept of "Six degrees of separation" * could be reduced to "One degree of separation". So it is upto us to perform a balancing act of lead a life in seclusion or not.

*Six Degrees of Separation - To get to or contact anyone in this world, the maximum number of people you need to pass through is five.