Slaves to Technology?

As the millennium drew to a close, the cellular phone was advancing at a pace that equalled the advancement of computers.
By 2018, the "smartphone" reigned supreme as both a phone, a computer, a personal organizer, game console, tv, dating service, newspaper, video camera & just about everything else you needed or wanted it to be.
Therein lies the problem. Humans have become addicted to this marvel of the technological age. Their faces absolutely glued to the screens of their alter-ego identities streaming across the ether at the speed of light...as they walk out in traffic and get ran over by a bus. Alot of good that smartphone did for those people but I'm sure they'll make an app for that soon...for a price.
I'm not against technology at all. In fact, I'm writing this on my phone right now from the comfort of my recliner. No, technology is a good thing except for when it has unintended consequences that are deterimental to the human condition.
Smartphones are deterimental to humans. They take away one of the most basic human need: the need to be in the presence & company of other living, breathing human beings and has replaced it with a "virtual" connectivity that allows the user to be whoever they wish to portray. Often that portrayal is in direction opposition to reality.
In creating this false reality, the user find themselves in a real physical world that they cannot relate to after long exposure to the virtual world.

You see this everyday. How many people stand in a checkout line at a grocery store and instead of talking to their neighbor in line, we see them with their face in their phones so they don't have to engage with another real person? This creeping, addictive and ultimately destructive, psychological modification is going to be irreversible at some point in the future as technology will eventually create a body interface with the virtual machine. People will no longer be people but rather an avatar.

I see technology as a tool and nothing more. I prefer to remain totally human, thank you very much.

Of course, I remember a time when there were no home computers at all. Everyday technology was quite a bit different.
It was 1982 and I was 12 when my family bought a "Commodore Vic 20" and that was the first time I had ever saw a computer in person & not on an episode of "Star Trek" or "Space:1999"!
The phones that we had were either mounted on the wall of the kitchen or on the nightstand in my parents room. Both were rotary dial phones.
Cable TV? Forget it. Bigger cities had cable but not the best majority in the rural countryside of my home state - not at that point in history anyway. Satellite TV was available but it was more limited in availability than cable.
No, my family had a huge tv antenna that had to be pointed to the northwest, towards Atlanta, to receive 5 channels. The reception, oddly enough as it is today, was dependant on the weather. That really wasn't an issue after we bought our first VHS VCR. We could pop in a tape & check out a movie - after we drove 13 miles to the nearest video store where we were a member & rented one for overnight viewing. God help you if you didn't rewind the tape when you returned it or you'd catch that fee on your rental account.
I will admit that it was fun to go to the video store. As a horror & sci-fi buff, it was amazing. The colorful posters, the memorizing box art & the shock of the price of movies on VHS that we're just released - if you wanted to own one!

What did we do before this age of technological marvels? We talked. Yep. Face to face. We ate dinner together in the evenings & talked about our days, our dreams & aspirations for our futures. We connected in a way that few families do today. We had a familial bond that ran deep and was immutable. We had no virtual reality to run to in order to escape our problems & worries. We talked about them, helped each other. We created real memories with each other. Lasting memories that are stronger than any mere machine can simulate.

I see parents giving their 10 year old kids smartphones. These kids will be socially stunted. How do I know? Ever seen a parent try to take away that kids phone? Yeah, you know what I'm talking about.

Parents have forgotten how to tell their kids "no" & mean it. Often, the parents provide the technology to the kid so they don't have to parent the child. Just let them melt into their game world & you won't hear from them for hours.

The smartphone, in particular, is and will continue to become a threat to human development. Human nature always leans toward the darker elements of life when those elements become so eadily accessible.

The smartphone has already changed the family units basic behavior. You know it's a problem when a company offers a phone dampening field to be used around the kitchen table so no one can use their phones instead of talking to each other.

The only reality that humans should be able to create is the one centered squarely around their family with technology tethered & limited to it's use as a tool.

There'll come a time when humans will regret ever inventing these devices & we'll move on to something else. That's what history has taught us...and we should listen with to history.