Is Technology Really Helping or Just Turning Us into Slugs?

There are those who think that technology is the greatest thing in the world. I have seen lists from people of things that they feel they cannot possibly live without. Usually the lists consists of things like TiVO and HD-Television. The general effect of this kind of thing is to make those of us who cannot afford such technology feel like idiots. Obviously, the feeling seems to be, our lives cannot be nearly as fulfilling as those who have this technology. As for me, I am not one to discredit technology. I have used TiVO before and I can certainly see why you would like it. I also know that if I had the available funds to own a TiVo machine I would have one. The fact is, though, I don’t necessarily feel my life is deprived without it.

There is a commercial running these days which shows people talking about technology and how it has advanced. We see a woman talking about how her family had a horse and carriage. There are people talking about owning a television, listening to the radio, or using a record player. This thing ends with a man talking about how he used to have to parallel park himself and then you watch as the car actually parks for him.

Now this, I must admit, is technology I could use. There is nothing worse than parallel parking. Okay, having your eyes gouged out with rusty scissors is probably worse than parallel parking, but really, when you have to parallel park it just sucks. Here in Chicago we have perfected the front-end parallel parking. Most places where you have to parallel park you drive past the spot, then slowly back into the space. In Chicago, if you do that, you can count on some guy coming up behind you and nosing his hood in first and front-end parking you right out of a spot. It tends to lead to very aggressive driving.