The Electric Brain

My friend Julie sent me a demo of a song she wrote recently, it's called "Electric Brain" It has sunken into my little damaged brain, has got me thinking about technology and how we relate to each other as humans.


Where to begin...?


My first job as an adult we had computers.  No email, no internet and a really "fast" piece of cutting edge technology called a facsimile machine.  That was in 1991.


Today part of my "job" is actually relaying information via electronic and social media to the masses.  It's a love/hate relationship with technology. 


There is rarely a moment of the day when I'm not working, reading email, communicating via Facebook, blogs, text, Twitter and even GASP the telephone. 


Yes, I use the telephone, it's my cell phone, I no longer have a landline and haven't since I moved to Brooklyn from Manhattan and gave up my precious 212 number.  That might have been 2004 or 2005, the years pretty much blur in that period. 


A few years back my friend Mo stopped using all technology, including the telephone, it seemed like a kooky experiment (knowing him it was).  You had to go to his house to get in touch with him.  I'm not sure how long that lasted, but he has been back for a while now.  He only communicates via email now, it drives me slightly batty, nevertheless I love him. 


So why is all of this on my head?  Truth be told I've been checking my email like a mad woman for the past 24 hours waiting for a response to an email I sent off yesterday.  


I miss human contact, I miss talking to people in person or even on the phone.  I would much prefer to Skype with someone to see a face on the other end than send a text.


Many things get diluted and misconstrued in this new communication process.  I've sent myself into a blind rage over text or emails received only to find out they didn't mean what I thought they did, or like now, have driven myself to obsession waiting for a sign of life on the other side of an email. 


Several months ago I got in a text fight with one of my best friends that had us not communicating until a few days ago when I apologized in an email.  


Technology is incredible.  I love seeing peoples lives through Facebook, reading your random thoughts on Twitter and that I can send my blabber out into space at any given moment.  It also allows us to work from anywhere in the world.  The globe becomes my office, I like this concept a lot.


The sad part is it isolates us.  It keeps us from the ones we cherish the most and turns our true feelings into a 140 character blurt. 


I go back and forth on technology, as I said at the start of this entry, it's love/hate.  Today I sit in the middle of those feelings, waiting for answers that don't come and stuffing a Peanut Chew in my mouth trying to make myself feel a little better.  


Shanon