Dear Editor:
A young boy of approximately ten years of age was seen using a computer while intermittingly employing a cell phone.
This scenario was symbolic of our present period of magnificent technological progress which enables us to acquire information in an instant, an age when the events of the world are at our very fingertips and communication from a distance is carried on our person.
However, as in most instances of advancement, there are unfavorable consequences, imagination and diligent research being the losers. Think of the times when personally researching a fact from a book, you came upon a similar or relative bit of data that had you visiting that book for possibly an hour instead of five minutes. You may have been trying to find out how many countries were in a particular continent or how many republican presidents served in the first hundred years of our nation or does Katharine Hepburn have the most Academy Awards. The point being, individual research through books gives freedom to the imagination and curiosity which, in turn, allows the seeker additional pride in achievement.
Of course, while the young boy is using his cell phone, he is merely reciting step by step his activities of the day to someone who is describing back to him their every move and whenever he needs to reach some organization or agency, he is told by machine to press buttons for a series of options which prohibits him from direct contact with a human voice.
Automation, while providing virtually instant answers, simultaneously deprives us of the pride and mind stimulation of individual research and personal contact.
Welcome to the arrival of the technological age where the automaton lives and the human bein expires.
Howard Lawson