In Bob Mondello’s Our Media, Ourselves: Are We Headed for a Matrix?, he addresses the negative effects that advances in technology are having on the quality of human life. Throughout the article, Mondello states that by moving further and further into the world of modern technology, where “everything streams”, we are abandoning all of what makes us human. To Mondello, the lost of humanity all comes down to the loss of all of our clutter and the objects surrounding us that “establish that one person is different from another”. He goes on to make the claim that, “Once you’ve felt the comfort of society, you worry about losing it. So to remind yourself of how you’re connected, you gather things around. And you cling to them, not so you won’t lose them, or lose what makes you you, but so you won’t lose the connections they represent. The fear is of emptiness- but of emptiness inside us, not of empty rooms.” Although it may be true that modern technology has lead to an increased sense of isolation among people as they become wrapped up in their own little worlds of iPods, e-books, Skype, etc., I disagree with the statement that the loss of tangible objects and clutter results in the loss of humanity, and I also disagree with the reasoning he gives as to why people collect and keep physical things around them in the first place.
Yes, having a bunch of personal objects around us does make a room more comfortable and homier, but will a loss of these cold, inanimate objects really make us lose ourselves as well?
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