A Fleeting Glimpse

Sorry for the gap in posts, but real life got in the way. I'd like to say how I was bogged down with GCSE work, spending hours every night perfecting it, but the truth is that I've simply been addicted to some game on Facebook. Productive, isn't it?

Either way, it shows how easy it is to get sucked into these things. I like to think I've got a fairly strong willpower - I am certainly determined not to get sucked into that Black Hole called "Fashion". Yet after a couple of hours of joining Facebook - enforced due to a National Welsh Youth Organisation I belong to - I've already been hooked to some game recommended by some of my friends. And ok, "addicted" may be too strong a word, but it was definitely playable, even for someone who has a lot of much more power-demanding computer games. And judging by some of the scores on the Global High Score list, there are people who have played this game non-stop.

This may not seem very dramatic compared to the global problems at the moment, but let's take a moment to look at a much bigger picture. If we look at the absolute extreme example of a tyrants regime - an Orwellian society - we see that technology plays a vital part. Would the Thought Police ever have caught Winston Smith without all those cameras and microphones? And is this growing dependence on technology bringing us further to that state?

Before you get any ideas, I'll be the first to admit that this is all a bit far-fetched. Robots aren't going to take over, and Artificial Intelligence is a load of crap. Yet... what if we get a virus?

Technology is undoubted a good thing, and I'm not here to preach any "be careful" cliché that's already been rammed down your throats. But it is certainly easy to be hooked into that state of "bliss" - you just don't give a damn, because what's happening on your small box is good. And it is good. The only danger is whether we let this state build a wall around us.