Tuning out thanks to technology

The paradox of technology has always intrigued me: it offers great benefits, but not without costs. This interest in the paradox goes back to high school when at Neil McNeil in Scarborough we studied science fiction books like 1984, Brave New World, The Last Western, Future Shock and others that predicted and exposed sinister sides of technology.

(Without getting sidetracked, the fact that 35 years later I remember these books and the teachers who taught us to think critically, is yet another pointer to the value of the separate school system, which is so routinely attacked these days as duplication and a waste of taxpayers’ money.)

Unquestionably, technology benefits us in many ways from advances in health care extending our lives to everyday living that is far more comfortable than in our grandparents’ day only decades ago. But it’s not a panacea. We’ve long been promised that technology frees us up for more leisure time, and yet we’re working harder than ever and enslaved 24/7 to the office through texts and e-mails.