Sudden Cyber-Age Paranoia

Have you guys noticed that human beings are doing more and more things than before? Technological advancement and the continuous demand for more efficient use of time has pushed us to achieve much more in our lifetimes as compared to our forefathers.

Time is so important in this world now that everyone is trying ways and means to have more time on their hands. Whether working, eating, shopping, banking, travelling etc., everyone just wants everything done quickly and now! No delays allowed.

Waiting for food to be served at tables is no longer necessary. We just walk to the food counter at any food court or fast-food outlet and within minutes our food is prepared, self-served and we can finish a meal all within 10 minutes. Long queues at bank counters are also now a thing of the past. No more having to face smiling or for that matter grouchy bank tellers anymore because we can again self-serve, withdrawing or depositing money via more efficient untiring machines 24 hours a day.

My mum used to tell me that she and my dad were pen-pals. They wrote to each other and only after many months (or even years) of correspondence, they eventually met up with each other. Thanks to technology, we do not need to go through such a long process of corresponding via snail mails to get to know our friends. We can communicate everyday via email, instant messaging or peer-to-peer (P2P) Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) to talk to friends on the other side of the world, all without having to pay hefty IDD charges. Online couples are probably sprouting up every minute right now thanks to technology!

I’m never really IT-savvy or a geek but within a few months, I have learnt so much on communicating and sharing information by the megabytes almost effortlessly online with friends from all over the world. With online ordering, practically anything and everything can be bought and delivered to our doorsteps so easily, we don’t even need to step out of house anymore if we don’t want to.

People we know or don’t know are reading each other's blogs and sharing their thoughts everyday, a situation highly impossible and unbelievable to me just half a year ago. Would you have thought that this was possible?

We are now so used to this super-fast pace and convenient physical world. Will we be able to take it if all these changed overnight? Will we be able to adapt if things just slow down suddenly? Can you take it if you have to wait 30 minutes for your food to be served? What if we can’t use the internet anymore? What if the machines all go on strike? What if the electrical power went dead worldwide one day? What are we going to do? We can’t chat anymore!!! >_<

Hmm……make sure you have some money in your wallet all the time…you can never rely on those machines completely. Stock up some candles and matches at home. Keep some ready pen, paper and envelopes as well. Don’t rely too much on electronic books…do keep a book or two with you…just in case, so that you can still have something to do if the world does black-out one day. I’ve got more than 10 with me right now. The power should be restored by the time I finished reading them right?

Hit by a sudden cyber-age paranoia…… :p