As you may know, the cell phone was born in the late 1940s in the Bell Laboratory, formerly known as AT&T Bell Laboratories and Bell Telephone Laboratories. Concurrently, the Zero generation came along giving rise to the standard naming of networks which subsequently led to what we use today - the 3G Network.

Technology today is a vast and ever expanding realm. We’ve grown accustomed to reaching into our pockets and pressing a couple of buttons to make contact with someone at any distance, therefore you could say that being “alone” is no longer the case. Beepers, Cell phones, PDA’s, and Notepads have found a way of intruding into every aspect of our lives in more ways then we’re willing to accept or acknowledge. How many times must we excuse ourselves from a conversation because an important phone call has jingled or buzzed mid-sentence? The same strengths we find in the ability to connect lead to our own weaknesses as a society. This 24/7 connectivity to the world has allowed us to become a slave to the machine as well as alienate us from our peers. Interpersonal connection is no longer a necessity and is becoming a less dominant form of communication.

“We have lost contact with the physical interactive realm and replaced it with the intangible realm of technology, through buddy lists and e-mail address books.”

We have lost contact with the physical interactive realm and replaced it with the intangible realm of technology, through buddy lists and e-mail address books. How is it that instead of waving hello to someone on the streets, we would rather answer and “unidentified” call, hoping to decipher the phantom caller by a response from the other end? Though technology has aided our growth in many ways, is it possible out society has taken it too far? Has the bond between man and machine become more important than the bond between each other? What was once an intermediary tool to increase communication, has become the single aspect that our lives revolve around. I ask myself sometimes, how did we get here and is it possible to go back where we came from? Life seems to have become an extension of our battery life and when that signal goes dead we feel helpless and vulnerable.

“Do we want to continue living as mindless drones, unaware of the world around us or do we want to face what is in front of us?”

It seems as though I have more questions than answers for you, but these questions need to be raised. Do we want to continue living as mindless drones, unaware of the world around us or do we want to face what is in front of us? Though, hiding behind a 17-inch Powermac in the Starbucks down the street may seem like a cozy place to reside, but should our entire lives be spent in the warm glow of the computer screen? I’m not say that we should ban technology, because you wouldn’t be reading this article right now, but I do believe that balance is vital to survival. What needs to be considered is how we should distribute our time between the virtual world and the physical world.