JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Brian Austin Whitney Blog Monday, April 16th, 2007

Thanks for clarifying, Dave. Can't disagree with anything you wrote....

Actually, I resonated to your comment about video games and the internet in your earlier post. I am referring to the numbness factor here - not to whether video games cause people to become violent. I don't believe they do...

My belief is that it is technology in general that is causing this numbness. Video games and the internet are examples but it goes back further I think - at least to the advent of the automobile. Think what the auto did - now we don't have to go to work on the bus or subway in the company of others but can go in our own cocoon. The people in the other cars aren't entirely real to us - if they were, we wouldn't cuss at them when they cut us off (and if we were real to them they wouldn't cut us off in the first place).

Or television. Before television, people did a lot more socializing. Getting together to play bridge, becoming active in clubs and organizations, etc. Now a lot of people isolate themselves from others to watch the little screen.

A lot of technological advances have the by-product of separating us from other people. And the more we become separated from others, the less real to us they become.

Anyway, reads like I'm stating it as a fact - but it's just a theory

Scott