Re:This is tiresome... (Score 1)

I bet they said the same thing about the television. Why, since the television was invented, families don't sit together trying to relieve intense boredom by faking an interest in senseless chatter!

I think television is a big part of the whole 'information overload' thing - there are a lot of people who find it very hard to think of something to do other than watch mindless crap on TV nowadays (personally, I've given it up. Really). Haven't you ever walked into a room and found three or four people just sitting staring blankly at the telly, for no other reason than "it's on"? Because if you haven't, I envy you.

And again, there are bad things to be said about the automobile - the legendary American dependence on cars, for example.

Your point about the people misusing technology being the cause of it all is valid - but unfortunately that seems to be most people - OK, so you're using the internet to find out about other cultures, different music, new technology (and so am I, and probably most people reading this) - but we are surely the exceptions? (This is "news for nerds", after all!)

And, like the article says, I don't really see a way to stop the rot either - following the advertiser/punter arms race to its conclusion gives us a disturbing picture of a society saturated with commercial crap trying to get its messages through to a population so desensitised that it doesn't care about anything much at all. <shrug>

--