Everyone today is excited about the newest toys and gadgets that are being released. New video games, new websites, new cell phones and computer ware. What does it do for us? It cripples us. Talking to someone I work with, he told me about a cute girl he was in a flirtatious conversation with. So, what would your next question be? Most likely, it was the same as mine; "Did you get her number?" His response nearly shocked me. He excitedly told me, "No, but she told me to facebook her." When did that become the equivalent?

The fact is that modern technology, as much as it is great for industry, is disabling the individual. Don't take that literally. I simply mean that it is the easy way out. Lives on Second Life, text messaging, instant messaging, even every video game you play are escapes from the real world. Yes, you communicate with other real people, but in an unrealistic world. This is shadowing people from being involved with face to face conversations. I have worked in the computer industry and still do. During my work, I notice that certain people I work/worked with are crippled by their incapacity to deal with people face to face. Computer nerds and video game geeks alike. Myself, I am a bit of each, but spent enough time in the real world to overrule my time on the keyboard.

The parents today use it as an excuse to keep their children safe. They buy them the video games and keep them on the internet so they don't have to deal with them, but also know exactly where they are. The irony is that most child predators out there now are not down the block in a broken down, baby blue van with a bag full of candy. They are in your home. Communicating with your children through this virtual world we have created. Likewise, the children use it as their excuse to be lazy. I remember when I was little, I couldn't wait for the weather to get nice out so I can go outside and play basketball... I hate basketball. However, it was a chance for me to be active and not sit in my house in front of a TV or video game all day.

When something bad happens, like Columbine for example, the parents use the video games that they bought and the music the children listen to as an excuse to why this ugliness happened. In fact, it is the parents to blame. These parents who are either buying these video games for their children, or not monitoring what their children are doing on the internet or what video games they are playing.

When I say our youth is being crippled by this, I mean it very generally. In fact, there are cases where autistic children are being taught simple communication tactics that they are lacking by means of the internet and these virtual worlds. It is the child in China, who killed himself over a game of World of Warcraft that I speak of. The 35 year old guy I worked with who couldn't have a simple conversation with someone in person without it becoming obviously awkward.

When you take a person away from someone's face, it makes it a lot easier to say things you ordinarily wouldn't say to their face. When you have someone in front of you looking at you in the eye, you have a tendency to be shyer and slightly more antisocial.

I am by no means advocating the dismissal of these great advancements in technology. Instead, as a society knows how to limit these tools, as so they remain tools instead of crutches...like they are becoming. As the old Playstation motto says, "Live in your world. Play in ours." Take that statement more seriously then it's presented.