We invented technology enslaving ourselves?

Recently I stumble upon 2 very interesting articles one from NYTIMES and one from Telegraph:

Breakfast Can Wait. The Day’s First Stop Is Online.-New York Times

MySpace generation happier to talk online than real life - Telegraph.co.uk

Mostly when I read these article, I will be saying… yea the world is very screw and these people are stupid. Yet this time, I must confess I am defiantly one of the people they say in the first article and I should be partially excuse from the second one as I am quite confident expressing myself in public.

However no matter what, it is very very disturbing still. Because I know this is the trend and I don’t see this trend going to decrease. As technology and information become more easier to access I also see work increases. Seriously, think about it. Ever since Email is invented then blackberry or mobile device that access email. Your life have been taken over by it. Being passionate about your work and being slave to you work is different. Before, checking emails at weekends are a sign of being passionate about your work. Now a days, checking emails on weekend is almost a given. In some cases if you don’t is almost a crime. People expect once the message is deliver the work should be done, because of Internet and Cellphone, delivering a messages across is so easy is just a few keystroke away.

To extend this further, we always dream of inventing robots as slave of mankind. Yet if you look at a very macro view, we are the robots, slaves of the technology and in most cases very mindless ones too. We check Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Various IMs and Emails everyday without even knowing is there anything there that needs our attention, we just logon and hope there are something. Even worst, if there is NOTHING there, some or most of the people of this generation will actually be depressed. The sense of needed is not anymore about someone you know who actually needs you but actually how many emails you get per day, did anyone poke you on Facebook or the follower counts on Twitter. This is VERY VERY SCARY as I just realize it is also happening to me. Seriously, the person you are talking to across the ocean through IM, if real A.I. exist… you can’t tell is he an actual person or just an A.I. yet you care for him as much as you care about the person that sit besides you. A.I. that can interact with you on a very intelligent and meaningful level does not exist now, yet to talk crap with you is not that hard. Most important of all, you are probably just talking crap anyway.

Technology without a doubt brings us lots and lots of “Candies” yet these “Candies” didn’t really came without a cost as we all thinks or want to believe… it takes away our life and the real interaction between people that we hope technology should bring us. It is time one should think what did the cost one pay for it.