Is the Internet a curse or a blessing?

By Magunga Williams

The other day, a woman  told me that the Internet and technology were created to save time. I remember laughing so hard until she felt insulted.

Seriously, if there is anything the Internet has made me become; is lazy. I am not only talking about the copy-paste tradition that has replaced hard work and academic industry, uh-uh. We have become lazy even in human interaction. Before we began fussing over the number of friends and followers we had on Facebook and Twitter, it used to be about the face to face interaction. Then came the social media craze and fear of being the only analogue person left in the world, we all got absorbed into the fad of virtual existence.

HICCUPS

The result was that we take pride in having more than 500  friends on Facebook, half of whom you do not even know, have never met, and the only thing you have in common is the mutual friends that you, unfortunately, also met online.

Twitteratti big wigs thump their chest to show off the number of followers they have on Twitter, then fancy themselves as the messiahs of our time. So woe unto you who have 100 followers, for you will have to kiss the high kings’ rings. The lords of all creation and the bringers of rain.  Give way, you peasants of meagre followers.

What’s more is that technology has made us too inaccessible, lately. More than once, I have tried holding a decent conversation with someone who is swiping her touch screen Techno handset. The common excuse, being that she is a woman, she can multi-task. So she will be on live chat with some guy having network connection hiccups in Rongai, as you go on and on talking to yourself. That is even disrespectful to say the least, but I cannot raise the matter up without sounding like a nagging housewife.

It so happens, therefore, that there are six guys in a room, earphones plugged in Gangnam style, punching dutifully on the keys of their phones. The room is hushed, yet these guys are chatting. Either online or through unlimited text messages.

TECHNOLOGY

I think Internet is a drug that young people have become addicted to and that makes devices to replace the physical. We have failed to deal with the face to face engagements, and so we let Internet and technology fill the spaces that real men are supposed to occupy.

So, the old fashion mode of asking for a number has been taken over by “give me your names and I shall do a Facebook search for you”. We no longer ask for addresses, rather ask for Twitter handles.

So you understand why I laughed at my woman friend when she said the Internet saves time. Perhaps that was the original cause, and the person who came up with it had his heart in the right place. But now, it has become a red pill that we cannot just live without.