Getting Lost In The Virtual World

People are slowly becoming strangers to boredom.

Facebook keeps us busy in between e-mail and Google, and given how simple it’s spread to even our grandparents, social networking websites could one day become our dominant means of communication.

I recently spent two weeks without Internet and even though I kept myself busy by climbing my mango trees and hosting a themed party at my house, I was unable to do any of my school work without it.

At this rate, kids will not be able to understand a life without Internet and the ability to instantly download answers to pretty much any question.

I tried watching TV, but it’s easy to see why a lot of us young people have already abandoned it, except to watch sports and Family Guy: because whenever I watched, it seemed the only thing on was whiny teenagers and obnoxious people working in cubicles.

If you rely on your computer incessantly, then wouldn’t you love another handheld computer built right into your phone? Everyone needs a little down time to think about things over; a phone with Netflix puts an end to that with seasons of The Office ready to stream at the touch of a button.

Anyone my age can go out and ride a bike or climb a mango tree. We all used to do things like that in school and maybe it’s our fear of the evil of the world or high gas prices, but the Internet is making it seem to young people that it’s okay to sit on your butt all day.

When our kids go to school, they’ll have super cool cell phones with all sorts of lights that will make us senile by age 50. It will be utterly impossible to make a child study his e-files when he has to visit his Facebook first or check out YouTube for clips of hot new video games.

We may all end up looking and living like the space civilization from Wall-E. I wouldn’t want that to happen, but when I see women walking with tiny $1,000 dogs in baby-strollers it makes me think: “Dear God! Something is wrong here!”