Is Technology Bringing Fear to America?

Editor’s Note: I am putting this post in all my blogs this week as I feel it is important for all to read.

Yesterday I was asked on one of the social media sites that I belong to the following question: Could you live without my cellphone?

My answer was that I didn’t have one nor will I ever will.

Almost immediately after that I received a comment from someone who I never knew who gave the one word response “lame”. At this point I realized that this person was being offensive and showing their obsession with the technology all in one word. I decided to delete this comment without any further thought about it.

This brings me to the point of this post: Is technology bringing the fear to America?

I believe the answer is simply “yes”. I have a few examples in the last week that proves this idea.

Point # 1:

I believe that if people were paying more attention last week during the Boston Marathon somebody, anybody would have seen the two guys drop their knapsacks near the garbage cans. I think people were so obsessed with either using their phones to film the people that nobody ever looked around to see what was happening behind them. All these people seemed so obsessed with what was going on in front of them that they were not paying attention to what was happening around them. As I have mentioned in previous posts, people on cellphones don’t pay attention period. This is part of the reason why I don’t own one. I want to pay attention to what is around me. I want to experience the world and not just keeping people posted on my doings on Twitter and Facebook.

It seems that the only camera that caught the criminals in the act was a store surveillance camera or at least that is all the FBI is saying they have used.

Point # 2

The stock exchange experienced a minor flash crash last week after a posting from Twitter of an attack on the White House. This was posted from a hacked AP account. Of course, nobody checked any other sources to verify this information and took it as fact and the stock market dropped by 150 points in less than 5 minutes. This leads to the point of should people rely on one place like Twitter to receive their news when there are many other reputable sources of information. Did anyone not think of checking at least one other source? It is sad to think that so many people rely on only source. It is funny how technology can do so much damage so fast.

Point # 3

Last week Congress rejected the expansion of the background checks for gun purchases. What are they afraid of? Being rejected by a system which would prove them incompetent of owning a gun or do they just want to make the NRA happy while causing anger to those who have lost family members especially at Sandy Hook. A system that should be used to protect people is being ignored and not expanded is not the way to go. The NRA is just allowing those who shouldn’t own guns to purchase them under the table with no oversight.

Point # 4

Going job hunting? Filling out that job application now is basically a futile attempt online by dealing with a process that is usually less than satisfying. Since more and more companies are going this route, the application process gets longer and longer and seems to be more of a personality test than a job application. What is worse about this is that many times rejection happens instantaneously and sometimes a few hours/days go by before that rejection happens. Nonetheless the rejection usually happens if you don’t meet company criteria to the letter. Never an interview and never anybody ever sees the application. Only the computer sees your application and they are not the best judge of your character.

In conclusion, people are obsessed with their phones and not paying attention to the real world therefore allowing those that can create harm to do their duty with nobody looking.

People trust unreliable sources thus causing panic when it should not exist. Double checking information with someplace else would alleviate this problem.

Fear of somebody’s past should not be the basis to reject expanding background checks or prevent somebody from getting a job. Sadly it seems that a deeper background check is done on potential employees than is done on gun sales. Does this mean that we can trust people with a gun, but we can’t trust them with our money? Sounds like misplaced priorities to me.

Overall, the fear in America is created by the technology that controls our lives. We should control it and not have it control us. Now is the time for people to put down their phones and look at the reality around them. Otherwise the fear will grow worse and much deeper.