#21 - the humans are dead

Very slowly and timidly, I am walking into the technological light. A few things rub me the wrong way (facebook, myspace, twitter, intelius) but some have been like a pair of new fuzzy socks: warm, comfortable and easy to incorporate into my everyday life. Obviously, in contrast to my first blog entry, the "blogging" water is nice and warm. I think the reason why I enjoy it so much is, I really enjoy writing and currently have no outlet, being neck deep in science and health classes at school. But, another technological creation has replaced a make-shift invention of my own. When ever I don't know something or have a question/debate regarding a particular subject, or just have something on the tip of my tongue that I just can't grasp... I call or text my mother and ask her. 90% of the time, she knows exactly what I am talking about and promptly responds with my answer, relieving much frustration. Then came along chacha. Evidently, in January this year, a company was birthed that answers random (and practical) questions. "What concerts are in Olympia this week?" "What time does my flight leave?" "What should I eat if I need more vitamin D?" a few of the questions I have posed to chacha. They are always quick to respond and, to my knowledge, correct. They are a great resource if you are out and about and can't look up information for yourself. Or, even if you can look it up yourself, they can save you some googling energy. Three opinions I have: because of inventions like this, we are becoming a more and more lazy people. Why look it up myself if some "impression of a person" can do it for me? One confession I have is, with my school, I only know (basically) one phone number: campus operator. I ask them everything, and have them transfer me everywhere. It takes a few seconds to go to my school's website and look up a professor's number... OR I can just ask Sally on the other end of this 24 hour hotline and ask her what my teacher's number is and have her transfer me. Opinion two: I hope this isn't some weird, uncomfortable way of somehow replacing my mother with an invisible "chacha"entity, like those orphan monkeys that think a terry-cloth with a cube-ball on its head is its mom. Opinion 3: too much technology still scares me, and it's taking over. Proof enough is that, while typing this blog, the word "googling" does not come up as a spelling error. It is, in fact, a word in the english dictionary. Sometimes I just freak out and turn off my cell phone, shut down my computer and write a letter. I still think that no matter what new advances are made in the future... nothing means more and can replace the feeling that come when you send/receive a letter in the mail. I love it, and think that the written word is much more potent and efficacious that anything else. I'm still very much anti those, attached to your head bluetooth things. Makes you look like a robot and completely unnecessary (possibly acceptable while driving...possibly.)