... Social networks no substitute for socializing

Modern technology never ceases to amaze me, as well as the opportunities it offers for extending our understanding of the world and for making our lives more convenient and comfortable.

When I was a small child in the United Kingdom in the 1970s, it was just around the time when most homes were getting central heating installed and color television was becoming affordable, but I still remember that we had to walk around 15 minutes to the nearest available telephone, a public call box in the town.

And I remember the sense of wonder when I first saw what could be loosely termed as a computer game — “Pong”, which was an extremely rudimentary table tennis game.

What amazed me as much as the game was the fact that the television set could be used for something else other than watching programs broadcast from one of the three available TV channels of BBC1, BBC2 or Independent Television. Now I am “writing” this column on a television screen, and I have a miniaturized screen (my cellphone) next to me on the desk with functions (if you use 1970s terminology) including a computer, television, telephone, video telephone, hi-fi, photo album, camera and a virtually limitless electronic encyclopedia, to name but a few. Ian Morrison

It’s all well and good for entertainment, but this technology also serves very practical purposes: With a few movements of my fingers I can order and pay for my weekly groceries — enjoying a selection as wide and varied as I would have if I physically visited the supermarket — delivered straight to my door, or I can buy from online retailers offering a range of goods that in the past could not even be imagined in the largest department store or hypermarket.

But when do we cross the line, when the ability to have almost anything brought to you instead of you having to go and get it yourself, turns us into lazy and indolent creatures who think that all we need to do is “snap our fingers” and this technology will bring us what we desire like some sort of “electronic butler” handing us the items on a silver platter?

We may regard the internet as a “social networking” technology to some extent, but how much does this convenience (and lack of any need to even get out of our chair) actually contribute to loneliness and the fracturing of society?

People are social beings, and it is how we have survived and thrived since the very beginnings of civilization.

Is the comfort and convenience offered by modern technology posing the ultimate challenge to this notion?