Accessories of the technological age - are they taking over our lives?

After a week in the far distant reaches of North East Scotland, one startling realisation is making me squirm with embarrassment. Unease and impatient self-contempt force me to admit my complete incapability to feel complete without the various accessories of modern technological life. Mobile phone, laptop, digital set-top box, the list goes on - I missed them all, and I must confess and describe to you the entire sad picture. Envisage if you will, the sight of your desperately unfit blogger struggling up the nearest hill a mere two days into the holiday - in the quest for phone reception and longed for internet access. Anorak-shrouded on a lonely clifftop edge in the pouring rain I obsessively checked my e-mails, don't forget facebook, and frantically bid on ebay.
Despite my earlier post in which I allege not to feel part of this technological age, I am ashamed of myself for having given in to this modern urge; an obsession to feel permanently connected with the outside world. Even now, the need to have University Challenge murmuring quietly in the background strikes me with concern. Is it me, or is it a feature of the young generation that seems to require persistent reassurance from various simulations of human contact? Worse still, does this eerie hands-off existence include us all in technological dependence? My grandma just got an ipod for Christ's sake.
We seem to be depriving ourselves of real human contact in favour of interaction with machines - are we deluding ourselves about our ability to be sociable? The whole world seems to go by without me noticing it. Every bus, train journey and walk I take I'm detached from reality, depending on my machines of distraction to entertain and amuse. Does silence scare us? If only our obsession for being constantly occupied could be implemented constructively in this mess of a planet.
Forgive me for sounding like an old woman, I don't mean to be closed-minded. Maybe it's a feature of evolution that we grow continually aloof, or maybe these are just our new toys, a luxury that we will indulge momentarily, soon to be forgotten. We become individuals in our detachment, yet in our separateness we are doing all the same. Entertaining ourselves used to rely on each other. Even in relation to our growing obesity crisis, technology has a guilty part to play - over Eastenders I sure wouldn't rather play tennis! Aside from the PC attempt of the Wii-fit, (a believable virtual reality indeed), discouraging the lazy normality is the last thing on our minds. Either way I'm as guilty as the next person - human nature desires convenience, and for the average individual, you can't deny we spoil ourselves.

Introductory contemplation: to blog or not to blog?

The nature of blogging is undoubtedly a worn-out subject I'm sure, but for those of us who arrived late on the scene of technology, uselessly clutching at pens and bits of paper, it can be the only real beginning. Now I won't start by regurgitating ancient insights; worry not. Everyone knows blogging has revolutionised the expression of free speech and all that blah blah blah, so I'll try not to throw mud at our democratic pioneers by being unoriginal. Nor will I attempt to explain the reasons behind why this blog has begun, for fear of offending the thousands who may or may not admit that writing a blog feels, dare I say it - self-indulgent? And after all, why deny ourselves what is only human nature? I'm a mere beginner but I'm damn well enjoying myself!
Too soon for philosophy perhaps, but this is only a test blog, so I'll permit myself the liberty of straying from the point. Getting back to it however: INSTEAD of focusing on the multiple benefits of blogging (a celebrated but overwrought topic for sure) this blog aims to address the potential downfalls of this newfound tool. It sounds converse - why am I blogging to denounce blogging? I should make it clear that as a beginner I am not in any position to condemn anything, but even observing myself as I write, having a free reign over language, opinion, debate, that has the potential to be communicated to anyone in the world is a powerful liberation! And if blogging is addictive, then a liberation it shall be, perhaps even a dangerous one.
Now don't get me wrong, I must sound like I take myself far too seriously, but this itself insinuates the truth of the matter - it seems that it is impossible to convey true individual character without it being distorted by blogging. Other people's perceptions, the context of the individual, and in this case the unintentional tendency to adhere to a pompous-sounding narrative (no I'm not Boris Johnson) all contribute to a huge divide between the blogger and the actuality of the individual. As some one who began this introductory post with little direction and/or intent to stick to the subject, I'll allow myself to arrive at the following conclusion; detaching ourselves from reality through blogging is what makes this an exercise in freedom, and indeed, in this respect the English language has never failed us before! Oh, and of course the inevitable myspace afterthought: don't judge me on my words for they are not the sum of me... I would claim anonymity but that's no fun, is it?