iPads, iPods and Technology-Enabled Isolation: If We’re So Connected, Why are We so Alone?

Abstract

In the past twenty-five years, we have witnessed and absorbed incredible technological advances into our lives. The new technologies in many ways have been liberating and empowering – in our age, we have become accustomed to and dependent upon the immediacy of electronic delivery. However, these technological innovations have not come without a cost. As we have become more connected and aware of our online selves, we have become less available and less connected to our offline worlds. We are in danger of not merely transforming our humanity, but forever losing what makes us human. We are more connected than ever before in history, we are more medicated than at any point in history, and we are more isolated from one another than ever before. It is important to consider and reflect upon technology’s contribution to these issues and decide whether or not the benefits brought on by the innovations are truly worth the societal, communal, familial and individual costs. We must decide if it is worth reframing our lives with a consideration of balance between what is digital and what is real.