OPINION. Have we become slaves of technology?

In the 19th Century, computer genius Ada Lovelace, the famed daughter of the renowned poet Lord Byron, laid claim that technology would some day become our slave.

And yet look around you. Almost 2 billion people have a Facebook account. There are more than 700 million monthly users on Instagram and let’s not even get started with Snapchat. Even Twitter is “so yesterday.”

I wanted to believe Lady Lovelace, until I saw with my own eyes the morbidity of a future where we surrender to our mechanical counterparts.

Aboard a cruise ship, Wi-Fi usage is very expensive. In part because when you’re out at sea, you’re expected to become one with the waves and sail your troubles away and also because of accessibility issues when you’re in the middle of the deep blue.

This made for a very interesting case of study. Six days, fourteen guests in our group and limited Wi-Fi. The result was catastrophic. Tensions mounted and usually spilt over at the dinner table. Snapchat streaks were broken and Mrs. Idunnowho all the way in West Nairobi would need to wait five whole nights before her next WhatsApp update.

So accustomed to tech they had become, it was not uncommon to hear someone say “LOL” rather than actually “LOL-ing.” Another hurled over the side of the ship, suffering from a stark disconnect from her social media buddies and the moment we stepped off the ship it was off to the nearest cafeteria to connect to a hotspot and indulge in non-stop texting action, Instagramming and starting a fresh Snap streak. So much for the acropolis.

That is not to say that technology is necessarily a fiend to our fiddling fingers. On the contrary, it can be very useful. Online banking, increased connectivity and information galore are three possibilities unveiled by technological advancements. Somehow, the digital world just makes things “easier.”

That is not to say it’s right. Before the first smartphone made its way into able hands in 1995, a dining table would be buzzing with banter, food would be enjoyed to the last morsel and eye contact was in such ample supply nobody would have thought it would someday become so rare.

Alas fast forward to the start of the new millennium. The 21^st Century dinner table would often consist of bickering twin lads playing tug of war with an iPad while a distracted daddy is so caught up in his own Galaxy S-7 that he cannot be bothered to get the fork out of one son’s eye and a mother is busy scrolling through fitness tips on an iPad whilst carelessly crunching down on a burnt pizza crust.

When was the last time you had a meal with somebody and they did not check their phones once. When was the last time you actually looked someone in the eye and said something meaningful? And when was the last time you just logged out of Facebook and went for a stroll in the park?

If your answer to any or all of the above is “not since 1994” then perhaps it isn’t so farfetched to consider the possibility that we have indeed become enslaved by the very devices we birthed to serve our greater needs.

Something to think about that’s a real issue in our current world.