George Myers Jr.
Connect / Consumer Tech Editor
Copyright 2005 by The Columbus Dispatch
Quotation from book:
People need to examine the role that media and technology play in their lives and then monitor and temper usage. That is the first bold step toward repatriation to the community, for when we temper use of technology and consumption of media, the first thing that we gain is time--for family, friends, neighbors, colleagues and others. We do not waste time online or on couches; we do not misuse media and technology, complicating or neglecting key relationships. We streamline our lives, communicating clearly at the right moment through the proper medium, or none at all, and experience fewer misunderstandings at home and at work.
With time comes opportunity: to enhance our well-being through exercise or education, to expand consciousness through interactions with others, and to deepen conscience through service to others. Those are requisites of the human condition, and we ignore them at our own risk.
from Michael Bugeja's Interpersonal Divide: The Search for Community in a Technological Age (Oxford University Press)
By George Myers Jr.
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Cell phones, the Internet and other communication tools have eliminated the wall between home and office, the private and public. And to far too many of us, they've made electronic games and chat rooms more appealing and seductive than the real.
As a result, the technologically connected are those most imperiled by what former Ohio University professor Michael Bugeja calls the ``interpersonal divide.''
In his new book, also called The Interpersonal Divide, Bugeja, now the director of the Journalism School at Iowa State University, asks us to ``re-evaluate the techno-media environment that targets and amuses us'' or
further risk ``blaming each other or ourselves for the flatness of existence.''
He wrote the book, he said, to give readers a sense of balance,
to remind them of the importance of place, family, work, home, school and public, and to help them draw boundaries ''to help us preserve our key rela
tionships, balance and sense of proportion.
An interview with the author:
Q. Why do some of us feel anxious when we can't get onto our e-mail 24/7, or feel compelled to telephone people as soon as the plane lands?
A. We've moved from human time to technology time, hurrying at ever faster speeds and feeling that someone some where is more important than
where I am , what I am doing and who I am with.
Q. Many bosses expect their associates to be reachable, if not working, on weekends and nights. To what extent is the business world to blame for ``the interpersonal divide,'' or is it blameless?
A. Technology, which was supposed to give us more leisure time, has blurred the line between home and work and lengthened our work day. The
business world has invested billions into technology, and that expense had to be recouped. So not only are employees expected to work day and night, they also have been out-sourced, so that companies don't have to pay medical benefits.
Q. Is there a downside to being able to access all the world's online information--note that I don't say knowledge--24 hours a day?
A. Knowledge isn't the right word, but neither is information. Much of it online is information about information, and a lot of it is profane, misinformed, opinionated or worse. True, there is information--knowledge, wisdom, sweetness and light on the Internet, too--but most users lack the literary
education to access that. You have to be informed by books, libraries, enlightened teachers and community role models to know where that information is and how to access it. Otherwise we will entertain ourselves or
worse, thrill ourselves cheaply with images, games, chat stereotyping and more. I'm particularly concerned about the impact on our youth who have never known a literary life.
Q. What advice can you give someone who's burned out
from being always connected?
A. Take an inventory of all the digital gadgets in your home and to ask yourself, ``Why did I buy the device?'' and then an swer, ``How am I using it?''
Many people bought cell phones for security reasons--in case their car broke down at night in winter--but then use those phones to order pizza while driving, endangering others.
Many people bought computers so that they could research or write and then use those computers for gaming, wasting hours. If you don't ask and answer why you bought a device, and how you're using it, then marketing will answer for you and you'll fall into the interpersonal divide.
For more information about Michael Bugeja's book, go online to
www.interpersonal-divide.org.
gmyersjr@dispatch.com