Is technology connecting us or isolating us?

I agree with you.

Call me old school, but I think the whole technology sector has somehow taken the feel out of the event. I remember by first camera, a Kodak KB-10. It was a good camera and even though it was expensive to operate I managed to capture some of the most amazing shots of people, events and scenery, in a single take. While visiting any location, I spend less time shooting it (since on one reel and 2AA batteries you could only take 30 or 40 something photos) and more time enjoying the beauty. Now though my Sony digital camera with its big memory and lost lasting battery has made me reckless and inattentive. I take 5 shots before perfecting a photo and sometimes spend more time taking unnecessary photos. So I decided on a plan, to spend at least fifteen minutes looking and absorbing the place before I leave it and trust me its more satisfying than a million photographs for your social networking website.

When it comes to personal relations nothing meets face-to-face. If your loved one is far away you have to use Skype but I can guarantee you cherish the moment you meet them in a location. That is why the whole adda thing still remains a hot favorite of college students in India.

On another note, technology’s distant nature is sometimes beneficial. Imagine you have befriended your old school bully on Facebook chances are you do not want to call him up and wish a happy birthday. To fulfill social customs, you can just post a happy birthday on his wall and job done.

I refuse to be smothered by technology. I still do long hand calculations with paper and pencil to keep my hand in, write with an ink pen my notes before typing into a word processor and hand wash my inner wear before bath.
I intentionally leave my mobile behind at times and use the land line at work.

Not because I am old fashioned. I am afraid that more and more technology is intruding.

Maybe I am paranoid about addiction after my subjugation to nicotine early in my life. I back off whenever I find that I spend more time on things that I do not think mean much.
I do feel that people go in for instant gratification through technology. Just a few years back when photography was film based, people spent more time in the creative aspects. Now it is free. The results are pedestrian.
Not that we do not have creative people of the ilk of Anoop Mathew and Rahul Anand and others. For such technology is just a tool. They will push it to the limits.
In a sense I have been voicing a grouse and slightly off topic. I too feel that the internet of things is tending to put people in an unreal virtual world and cutting us off from personal interactions. I am seeing small kids sitiing with tablets and smart phones clicking away at games and not reading or drawing or even just horsing around. I thank God fervently that my grand daughter, who has come on a visit is well hooked onto Secret Sevens, Famous Fives and crayons and paints.

Likewise fora like CE. For every serious one like CE one can count a hundred inane and trivial ones. Self aggrandizing blogs abound.

Yet there is a lot to be said for sensible application of technology. That is the only way to leap frog development in developing countries. One should not throw the baby out with the bath water.

We at CE can perhaps do our mite (might?) to show how it can be done.

Technology helps to bridge gap between like minded people but it definitely lessens the time ee spend with close friends/relations.

I am happy that i can find like minded artist friends who share what i love very much but i also miss family very much.knowingly or unknowingly i am tied to social media which i must admit. So keeping a balanced act is necessary to lead a worthy life.

in my view excess will always be danger.so for everything there is a limit.

We must not neglect the importance and usage of technology in our lives but then we must also realize that people are more important that any technology that this mankind can ever think of.

To this effect everything should be accepted with crisp and discrete boundaries be it relations or technology.

People were supposed to be loved and technology was meant to be used. But now, people are being used and technology is being loved

Truly said.
I myself see a decline in communication skills among people(me included) with the ever increasing use of Whatsapp and other chats. People can chat for hours daily virtually but cannot even talk properly when they are face to face.

It's always depends how people are using technology.
Same has been said when mobile boomed, they use to said that earlier people use to call now only sending sms.
Today also, if you care you will call on b'day otherwise you will just post on social network.
Thing is getting disconnected in trying to connect. The most weird thing you see is going on restaurant and they check phone while waiting.
For camera phone, It's your choice to have some memorable moment to freeze for life or just keep shooting and posting them on Facebook to get like.

Simple concept, if you use balanced then only, technology is worth it

I've been on both sides of the table, and arguably I am still on both sides of the table due the addictive fact that #-Link-Snipped-# Sir said (yes, it's not that easy to control one's mind)!

So let me explain what I feel:

1. When 'messing' with Technology, my 'general' mood swings are like this:

I'm moody. I feel like everything is just waste of time. I stammer. I muse. In short, I feel lost in the abyss thinking/doing something that's not providing me any satisfaction, but just preventing my misery/situation from turning worse. All I'm doing is 'trying' to escape from myself (or from being myself). The worst part is when you 'make' friends you don't keep for long. Chatting, facebooking, watsapping, vibering, gtalking, skyping, SMSing, whatever it may be, it turns to be the 'addiction'. Often you 'don't' find anyone to chat with either. Instead of just calling/meeting a friend and talking to him/her about your 'life' (worries, day, hobbies, desires, pain, suffering, ideas, etc), you end up depending on that friend to show up on that 'tech' so that you can chat. This got too much for me at once and I had to stop 'talking' online and really get offline. Once I felt the difference, I switched back to being myself more offline than online.

2. When using Technology as a tool, my 'general' mood swings are like this:

I'm creative. I'm intrigued. I'm onto something with passion. I'm all hyped up about something. I'm filled with the curiosity to do/find/fell the next 'BIG' WOW thingy!

Reality is hard to change:

Yes, I still use the social networks to keep in touch as it's cheap. But somehow, I've missed on the calling-my-friends part and that's not right. Even they don't call me, so it's kind-of-even. So 'what is the option to GET-THE-WORLD-BACK-TO-HOW-THINGS-WERE-BEFORE?' is yet a question unanswered! True, it's isolating as hell, but thank Goodness there're a few connected friends who still use the good old 'call-me-on-XYZ-number' system to keep in touch!

Anoop MathewI've been on both sides of the table, and arguably I am still on both sides of the table due the addictive fact that #-Link-Snipped-# Sir said (yes, it's not that easy to control one's mind)!

So let me explain what I feel:

1. When 'messing' with Technology, my 'general' mood swings are like this:

I'm moody. I feel like everything is just waste of time. I stammer. I muse. In short, I feel lost in the abyss thinking/doing something that's not providing me any satisfaction, but just preventing my misery/situation from turning worse. All I'm doing is 'trying' to escape from myself (or from being myself). The worst part is when you 'make' friends you don't keep for long. Chatting, facebooking, watsapping, vibering, gtalking, skyping, SMSing, whatever it may be, it turns to be the 'addiction'. Often you 'don't' find anyone to chat with either. Instead of just calling/meeting a friend and talking to him/her about your 'life' (worries, day, hobbies, desires, pain, suffering, ideas, etc), you end up depending on that friend to show up on that 'tech' so that you can chat. This got too much for me at once and I had to stop 'talking' online and really get offline. Once I felt the difference, I switched back to being myself more offline than online.

2. When using Technology as a tool, my 'general' mood swings are like this:

I'm creative. I'm intrigued. I'm onto something with passion. I'm all hyped up about something. I'm filled with the curiosity to do/find/fell the next 'BIG' WOW thingy!

Reality is hard to change:

Yes, I still use the social networks to keep in touch as it's cheap. But somehow, I've missed on the calling-my-friends part and that's not right. Even they don't call me, so it's kind-of-even. So 'what is the option to GET-THE-WORLD-BACK-TO-HOW-THINGS-WERE-BEFORE?' is yet a question unanswered! True, it's isolating as hell, but thank Goodness there're a few connected friends who still use the good old 'call-me-on-XYZ-number' system to keep in touch!

You definitely have a unique way of expressing your thoughts. I like it very much.

#-Link-Snipped-# original post: Imagine how many people from the set of friends, which we were good friends with once, are out of touch today because of geographical reasons. Take it this way: with whatsapp, at least you get to wish them (if not meet them personally). It helps you stay in touch 24*7.

#-Link-Snipped-# - I've formed a group too. And all we share is idiotic forwarded messages.

Kaustubh Katdare#-Link-Snipped-# - I've formed a group too. And all we share is idiotic forwarded messages.

Well, to be very frank, when our friends send us those idiotic messages, we so laugh at them. If a stranger were to do the same, we would immediately gain a moral high ground 😀 I guess with its evils still, technology gives us that feel of being in touch 😀

All I meant is - everything's so mechanical these days. 😀

Yes it is. From a personal standpoint, I feel technology is probably the only thing that keeps me connected to my friends, family and CE 😀 And I cannot help but wonder how difficult it must be in the old days with no means of communication.

Besides, how can we discount the advantages of the internet? I can only talk about the academic perspective. Learning, innovation, sharing of ideas is made simpler. More fruitful. Combined effort is truly more than a term and technology is yielding these results.

More than twenty years back our dog that grew up with our children died. My daughter was already away at USA for higher studies. I wrote her a two page snail mail in long hand. Last year when I visited her in the US I found that letter (slightly yellowed) kept with her things. I doubt if a FB?Twitter/Whatsapp posting would have been.
It required a major effort to keep in touch. That such a trouble was taken added value to the rare contact.
Technology is extremely useful. It has to be kept in check with the user firmly in control.

An update. Tesla Motors, California, USA with 3000 humans and 160 robots. Stunning: