Just Push Play

Sometimes I feel like there's a great deal of power contained within a single push of a button or the click of a mouse. The transfer of will into action, of thought into deed, and of curiosity into mistake.

Take the elevator, for example. (Was that sentence grammatically correct? I think not!) We call out for a giant metal box, several times our own body weight, command the opening and closing of its doors, and send the box up and down an elevator shaft sometimes hundreds of feet high just with button presses. We command with single fingers.

We can publish great works of literature and art online with the mouse. We can scour the globe for a rare item, speak with the vendor, and buy the damn thing without ever moving more than our fingers and wrists. Think about doing that 100 years ago. What about 50? What about 10? Even so recently as a decade ago we did not have the degree of technology available that we do now. The magic buttons of our society now enter into our pockets as we begin to carry smartphones and iPhones and other interconnected gadgetry. These things that can instantly move sums of money or sell a company or start a career have become essential to our daily lives.

I can no longer conceive of escaping from the online world for an extended period of time. The idea that I should have to be out of contact from e-mail and phone service not only seems patently ridiculous, but also somewhat frightening. And that in itself frightens me.