A recent article in a major EMS publication has me second guessing how I communicate. Regular readers may want to sit down before reading this.
Imagine that instead of thinking through a thought, concept or comment a person could simply spout it out, anonymously, for anyone who wanted to listen? And not in a public arena, but from the comfort of their own home.
Gone are the days of decorum and civilized discussion when a person took out a pen and paper and wrote a letter to the editor. Replacing that honorable tradition is this new technology promising to let us communicate instantly with anyone in the world, at a moment's notice, to say anything about anything, not knowing who may be party to the conversation.
Privacy is gone.
When I speak my mind, where does it go? Into the ether to be collected on the other side, surely, but what of the intermediate? Where is it before it gets to it's destination? We'll never know who or what is there, listening in, watching for us, taking notes just in case.
No longer can correspondence be between two people when a third party could be a part of it at any moment, without notice.
This is unprecedented in world history and I can not be blind to it any more. Where is our honor? Where is our respect for our fellow man? When did we decide that communicating instantly was more important than communicating well?
I imagine next we will stop referring to one another by our names but instead use the letters and numbers that define where we are in relation to this so called "new frontier" of social interaction.
Well, I'm out. I have seen the dangers, read actual accounts of persons who have fallen out of good public standing because of someone reporting what was recorded and I am not going to take the chance that this technology comes between me and a meaningful relationship with my friends and colleagues.
I am giving up the telephone.
-HM
Imagine that instead of thinking through a thought, concept or comment a person could simply spout it out, anonymously, for anyone who wanted to listen? And not in a public arena, but from the comfort of their own home.
Gone are the days of decorum and civilized discussion when a person took out a pen and paper and wrote a letter to the editor. Replacing that honorable tradition is this new technology promising to let us communicate instantly with anyone in the world, at a moment's notice, to say anything about anything, not knowing who may be party to the conversation.
Privacy is gone.
When I speak my mind, where does it go? Into the ether to be collected on the other side, surely, but what of the intermediate? Where is it before it gets to it's destination? We'll never know who or what is there, listening in, watching for us, taking notes just in case.
No longer can correspondence be between two people when a third party could be a part of it at any moment, without notice.
This is unprecedented in world history and I can not be blind to it any more. Where is our honor? Where is our respect for our fellow man? When did we decide that communicating instantly was more important than communicating well?
I imagine next we will stop referring to one another by our names but instead use the letters and numbers that define where we are in relation to this so called "new frontier" of social interaction.
Well, I'm out. I have seen the dangers, read actual accounts of persons who have fallen out of good public standing because of someone reporting what was recorded and I am not going to take the chance that this technology comes between me and a meaningful relationship with my friends and colleagues.
I am giving up the telephone.
-HM
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