Living in a bubble: Our love of techno-gadgets is insulating us from real world

This was an interesting article, and I wrote the following reply to the author ...

You've written an interesting and thought-provoking article, "D.", but I think your assessment is a case of "post hoc ergo propter hoc", when in I think it's more likely that the isolation is something that we all crave in some fashion. Our planet is growing ever more populous, and sometimes we need to retreat.

Each of us populates a personal tech-bubble of one. Solo-tech-travelers often are unaware that others occupy the same dimensions as them -- that's why they often bump into others, in their cars or on foot.

I also don't think that the techno-gadgetry causes the self-involvement that causes people to bump into each other in crowded places. It isn't just business travellers that do this ... go to a mall sometime. Mothers will push stollers right into you, people walk against the flow all the time to save two seconds reaching a store they won't buy anything in, and generally have no concept of the space around them.

I've got enough gadgets to arm a small crew of neo-hackers, but at the same time, I'm aware of those around me at all times. Perhaps I just have a bit more cranial bandwidth than others, but there's a certain level of outside awareness that I maintain at all times. But I've seen many others that appear to be incapable of doing the same.

I think that self-involvement is inherent in many people, and is partially manifested by the gadgets that allow them to micro-manage themselves and the environment around them.