Don't let technology take over

In the US, it's as if everyone is accompanied by an electronic counterpart, and you can't deal with the flesh-and-blood person without relating to his disembodied double.

from the June 25, 2007 edition

Margaret Scott

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New York - "America's been hijacked by technology," I complained into the headset, aware of the irony that I was calling my wife from the United States on a cellphone. I was only a week into my book tour and already homesick for the low-tech life we enjoy in Costa Rica.

Since I had arrived in the US, everyone had been talking – not to the person next to him, but to someone who wasn't there. In fact, two dear friends first greeted me while speaking into their cellphones. One apologized later, confiding that she often argues with her husband over his habit of walking into the house after work talking on his cell. And then her cellphone interrupted our conversation.

After six years of living as an expatriate in Costa Rica, it's always a trip – in more ways than one – to return to my native land. And on this visit I was struck by the extent to which technology has become so bound up with the American experience. It's as if everyone is accompanied by an electronic counterpart, and you can't deal with the flesh-and-blood person without relating to his or her disembodied double.

The first BlackBerry user I noticed seemed to me like an escapee from a mental ward. When a side view afforded me a glimpse of the black and silver clip in his ear, I felt I was in the presence of the Borg. In a way, I was: He seemed to have been assimilated into his technology. Is this the "larger life" that BlackBerry ads promise?

Then there was that e-mail I received from a renowned book critic. To my surprise, the word "and" was spelled "aamnd," and "you" had been reduced to "u." At the bottom it said the message had been sent via a BlackBerry.

Now if words hadn't been my correspondent's stock in trade, I might not have expected good spelling – which brings me to another point: The particular way we use a technology and the unique way it fits into our lives are as important as the function and features touted by advertisers.

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