Man made machine

In a world run by computers, we have been conditioned to depend on them at the cost of our humanity. The more features the device offers, the more we rely on it as a crutch, aiding us in our hike through life. Man made machine to perform functions more easily and efficiently, sacrificing the human experience makes us as cold and sterile as our computers.

The ability to instantly communicate with someone across the world is phenomenal, never has it been easier to keep in contact with millions of people. For those whose career paths demand high volume communication, there hasn’t been a more functional tool to utilize. However, that is just a few positive attributes drowning in a sea of negative effects.

People sit shielded behind their shallow monitors, communicating with minimal acknowledgement of what they are neglecting. With the advent of Myspace and instant messaging, computer obsession has increased, with its victims abandoning the world surrounding them. People dependant on this form of communication are missing out on the wonder inherent in being human.

The sound of guttural laughter at a joke, the nervous fidgeting of someone’s hands and the emotionally charged facial expressions in a conversation are all crucial communicational experiences. Coming into contact with a person does not simply consist of exchanging a series of thoughts, everyone has tell all mannerisms that convey, at times, a lot more than our chosen vocabulary. These can only be witnessed in person, and can be crucial to the understanding of the spoken word. Feeling a conversation is true contact, a state imperative to humankind.

Individuals crave the presence of others, in order to participate in honest exchanges of your being, all senses must be engaged.

Similarly, the acquisition of news via computer inherently possesses a sense of distance and disassociation between the reader and the events. It is difficult to fully grasp the existence and reality of tragedy if there is no tangible connection between the reader and the article, a link which attaches the reader to the subjects in the stories. The physical manifestation of this link is the printed newspaper.

Leafing through the bundle, feeling the paper grain on your fingertips and the anxious turning of the pages all contribute to the difference between reading and experiencing the news. Actively experiencing the news requires the physical engagement of the senses. If one is physically involved in the obtaining of the desired information, the turning of the pages, the spreading out of the sheets of paper, there is more of an active role in the experience. Time spent and effort exerted to reveal words of importance. This experience motivates changes and contributions to current affairs, whereas reading mostly informs. We mustn’t allow our generation to abandon the importance of such passion in the name of ease.

Mostly, our computers have stripped a people of unique personal experiences; writing generally from mind to machine instead of relishing in the sight of a pen grazing atop the surface of a piece of paper. The imperfection and grace of the human hand is part of the marvel in writing, forgotten, writing has become a means to an end. The overall pattern seems to be that, while we are blessed with all the gifts the computer delivers unto us, we have fallen into a headstrong reliance on our newfound comforts. We would rather find solace in our illusionary online world, instead of facing another human being, instead of facing life, reality and true existence.

Given the nature of our society, not much can be done to rectify this notable alteration in mentality, however, actions can be taken to awaken our buried humanity. One might suggest that instead of succumbing to a melodramatic Myspace blog, to write, with pen in hand, as passionately and honestly as can be afforded, knowing the paper will never be discovered.

Substitute locking yourself in a two dimensional world with an acknowledgement of the three dimensionality in which you exist, the smells, the textures, the feel of the breeze against your clean skin.

Ultimately, the goal, to break free from the emotionless machine that continually inherits apathy in its addicted users. The concept, to feel the overwhelming world around us that ironically barrages the public with the notion that to be human is to be weak.