Electronic Cancer?

Personal boundaries.

When I was a kid, it was just a black and white TV and three channels. Then we had a single color TV and rabbit ears for PBS. Then the cable came, and it was four televisions with 125 channels and NetFlix too.

The computer arrived as an electronic typewriter with a monochrome screen and a dot matrix printer. Then came the modem, the graphics-based browsers, blogs, YouTube, and a never-ending juke box.

The cell phone started out as something that made expensive phone calls, then they added text messages, 500 newspapers, 100 magazines, television, radio, an endless feed from Google Reader, and GPS with turn-by-turn mapping and voice directions.

What started out as the World Wide Web is now the Wild Wild West.

We were invaded, then we were enveloped and now we are being consumed. 

How many of us are spending 4-, 6-, 8-, 10-, or more hours a day staring at electronic screens, whether it's a computer, a cell phone, or a TV?  How many of read and send emails in traffic?

Some are happy that the electronic frontier remains unfenced, yet I cannot help but notice that, in a world without fences, we seem to be spending a heck of a lot of time riding the range, chasing down one thing or chasing out another.

We are addicts, with a love-hate relationship with this electronic needle. 

One thing seem clear to me: we, as a society, cannot continue in this direction at this velocity.  Something has to give.

Cowboy Facebook.

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