Photo: Peter Funch.

Once, while I was riding on a crowded bus, the man sitting next to me threw his cell phone out the window. When his phone rang, instead of dutifully answering it, he casually tossed it away. I was stunned. He looked at me, shrugged and looked away. I had no idea if it was his, if it was stolen or if he even knew what a cell phone was. But in one seemingly careless motion, he managed to liberate himself from something that has completely consumed me.

When my cell phone rings, it's an incessant and incensed vibration that demands my immediate attention. I curse its calling, but am unable to refuse. Whether I'm in the middle of a conversation, in the shower or sound asleep, the ringing causes such panic and excitement that I feel forced to answer.

"The pressure to answer the pulse or ring in a flash has Technoslaves hopping to grab the message, scrambling away to find clearer signals and/or deal with the urgency of the moment as though it borders somewhere on the fringes between life and death," writes The Trends Journal editor Gerald Celente." ... And for what, to say hello, to bitch and moan or do business on the phone?"

Technology is supposed to free us from the shackles of work and give us more leisure time. But it has proven to do the exact opposite. A 2005 Leger Marketing survey for the technology newspaper Computing Canada found that the majority of people feel technology has meant more work and less time with the family. Whether it's cell phones, Blackberry's, video games or email, we have become a culture enslaved by our electronics.

As people fall further into their personal gadgets, scientists and psychologists are now beginning to classify technology dependency as a major health problem, putting it in the same categories as alcoholism, gambling and drug addiction. The stress it creates is causing arthritis, migraines and ulcers. These physical attachments are causing weight gain, back problems and bad skin. But most troubling, it is having a powerful impact on our personal development. It seems the more 'connected' we are, the more detached we become.

"Humans are being trapped in a high-tech cycle that is freezing their minds away from living in the moment, looking at life and taking in whatýs around them," writes Celente. "While technology has radically altered the externals of life, it has done nothing demonstrable to enhance the internals: moral, emotional, philosophical and spiritual values."

As I stare blankly into a computer screen for hours on end, sometimes I wonder if thereýs a secret message hidden in this technological maze. But the more I stare, the more I keep coming up with the same answer: I am trapped.

_Eric Slate

COMMENTS:

folks, I don't always answer my cell phone I got rid of the landline. On the weekends I ignore my email. Simple, no?
tfiedler

I went back to a non-picture Tracfone and disabled texting. Luckily I don't need it for work. The only reason I have one at all is because it's impossible to find a pay phone these days. I keep it for emergencies and long distance calls to family. Only my family know the number. And they know I don't answer it. They email when they need to get ahold of me. Leanne, I have several friends and business contacts who used to be Borg and thought they couldn't survive 30 seconds without contacting their continuum. I have successfully converted many Borg to talking primates by walking away when they start texting. I started subtly and moved on to more extreme measures with much success. I have even moved to other tables in restaurants, started listening to music during meetings and walked to the other side of the street. A few of them get annoyed, of course. I find, however, the ones who are worth it don't need me to explain that I would like to give them my undivided attention because I value their opinions and ideas but regrettably I received a more important message from the other table or my mp3 player or the other side of the street. Yes, for about 2 months most of the texting was about what a bitch I am. But everyone I deal with now either turns off their phone before they meet with me or tells me in advance they are waiting for a call. Six of them have expressed relief that they are ALLOWED to turn it off and have started doing so around others. I have not been interrupted since by any lolcats or forwarded 50 year old text jokes. The ones who are not worth it... well, they aren't worth it. They are joined to their tech and cannot be saved. There is no point in trying to remain friends with someone who doesn't listen or stay in business with someone who can't concentrate.
Alexa

Fo Realz. Silly Technology.
Anne

Well many of these electronics do make life easier but it's interesting to see many of the younger generations addiction to it. One of my favorite things in this life is the internet and having instant access to information, as well as the networking possibilities the net provides. All the gadgets can become a distration but overall I think the pros far outweigh the cons. But I do feel for the teacher who always has to be available, I would not work under those conditions.
mr. bixby

Check out another interesting article on this topic: Digital Dilemmas: What Wireless Industry Doesn't Want You to Know - http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?cArticleC&cid1203758679197&pagenameZoneEnglishHealthScience%2FHSELayout.
Hatem

sorry guys, music is the answer, so im hooked proudly. dont have a cell phone, no use, ill never hear the thing.
Anita

that's a good one
sk

Intriguing and disturbing how the personal responsibility dogma is so prevalent, a way of ignoring the ills that are systemic and very hard to avoid, esp. when imposed on one, as some contributors here have noted. Seems to be a legacy of Cartesianism and Protestantism to pin total reality and responsibility and blame on the lonely denatured individual. Throw in a little Buddhist detachment/moderation philosophy and that lets technosocial degradation off the hook. Cell phones and other technoaddictive gadgets weren't necessary 12 years ago why now?!?! Because toy supply, like the availability of drugs, creates demand and need. We ARE enslaved by much of the new technology, whose creation, keep in mind, is precisely for that purpose not to make a better world, but to make more money for the corporate pigs. Doesn't that raise your ire enough, in itself, to want to toss the phone? And note we're not even talking about the physical health effects now burgeoning, the neurological disorders with a roughly 10 year incubation time, according to major doctors and publications. Brain tumors are skyrocketing, and there's no coincidence, especially for vulnerable brains of the young. A closing thought, from my musings in the middle of last night: The revolution will not be podcast.
Noel

I think this is very interesting and a great idea also, I spent a week without computer, television, cellphone, music, etc it was a project and my results fascinated me, at first it was driving me crazy but then I felt totally free and discovered how great it is not depending on this kind of stuff.
Edith

Technology is the way that we are all being slowly but surely enslaved....it provides us with entertainment work, great shopping abilities and everything else that we need to not rebel against our masters. Now that we have it all at our fingertips why should we worry about corruption, war, famine or any of the other things that are happening in the real worlds...we are being spoon fed through network hoses and always feel strangely disattached from the pictures on the screen not really knowing why.....Should we ever want to venture out of our cozy condo our position can be easily tracked by global satellites and with the new DNA testing technologies available a court can decide that you are likely to commit a crime and therefore detain you for the good of the rest of us sane people..... Luckily enough the people who built the systems aren't half as smart as they need to be so we are still in control.....The Matrix isn't coming...it's already here....open your eyes zombies
Krs

Music Suggestion: No Phone by Cake.
Ford

Its true that electronics make life easier, and maybe the reason people have less time to spend with their families and doing other activities is because people get heavier volumes of work because its easier to do.
Francis

I'm not sure if it's all so bad. I agree with someone above me, in that not all of it is the tech., and moreso the person using or misusing the technology. I think this type of mindset will convince people to throw away their cell phones, computers, and pdas and then what? Be disconnected by choice? It's all a little ignorant for me.
thoughts

Who says technology was supposed to lessen our workload? Seems to me most of it is built to streamline workload, but has nothing to do with its quantity; that's all up to the user.
John Barleycorn

For me, technology has been food for thought. With the Internet I can reaserch and explore topics and ideas that interest me, and discover perspectives I have never thought of. As for the phone, you can just switch it to the silent mode.
M

Technology was sold to us, back in the day, as a way to make our lives simpler and better. As a public high school teacher, I have witnessed the evil that is technology. On my days at home sick, I am expected to check my email. It is also expected that I respond to parental emails within 24 hours no matter how busy I am or how trivial their email. My students hardly know how to interact with each other this is something they speak openly about, due to their time IMing and texting. Further, if they cannot google something or find it on wikipedia they are lost. So, sure there are pluses to technology, but there are also many minuses. We need to be honest about the true cost of technology.
Kat

Try self control. Technology can only enslave what we allow it to. You're issue isn't with your cell phone, yet you make it the scape goat for other deep routed psychological issues.
Corey

You only allow yourself to be enslaved if you let technology control you.
Cher

It's a two sides of a coin to everything? It really depends on how each of us handle the technology or whatever things that life bring to us.
blah

Ummm... so, the device that lets us communicate with each other is the problem? Get some perspective, man. The business class has atomized our society to the point that the only way we can keep in touch is with disposable caceremitters aka cell phones. So your advice is to ditch the phones? That's like telling an AIDS patient to stop the meds because the CIA deliberately spread it into the black population. You need to look at root causes encourage people to live in sustainable communities. This article is insipid.
ORLY

I agree with Leanne. Teachers allow students to listen to music while they lecture in my school. Cool? Maybe. Until it only becomes a precedent to allow students to text during lectures. I have a friend that gets up at 6:00 in the morning and starts texting, and texts all day till 11:00 at night throughout school, homework, even dinner, and conversation with her. Always texting. It's gotten to the point where actually talking on the phone with her boyfriend would be awkward. If you need to text to supplement social skills, your skills obviously suck..
Lexie

If you could implant an internet chip in your brain so that you could theoretically communicate and have instant access all of the webs information, without a phone or a computer, but at the same time be able to turn it off, would you get it?
smokey bear

The shit about being a technoslave is A. its all around you - do you not have a small urge to look at your phone when someone else is on theirs? B. Its' the norm, as some others have said you CAN be excluded from your friends and family if they cannot contact you via email or facebook. C. Interacting in person is out of stylenow i wish this was different but it started long before computers and blackberry's. I remember when I was a child I would sit on the home phone for hours with friends who lived a few blocks away. To repersonalize ourselves we need to get comfortable seeing eachother in a new light...ie sunlight! D. Its easy and convenient, email or msg someone and your done, no dialing, no waiting, no unwanted lengthy convo's, no awkward silence/goodbye, no need to be human we got emoticons for that! I have conflicting views about being a technoslave. I love being able to jump online and catch up with friends/family acorss the country, I love being able to share pics in one click, I love all the info at my fingetips! However the price were paying may be too large for the things i love. My biggest compliant is technoisolation. These advances are tools not LIFESTYLES.
sloflo

I don't have a phone. I have email and use skype, which are free and nonpolluting. I had a cell phone for about eight months and felt like I was on a leash. They are certainly convenient, you don't have to make definite plans anymore. The thing is, I don't mind making definite plans, my freedom is worth that small sacrifice of time and energy. But most people love their cell phones, which is fine, as long as I don't have to have one. One request, though: Please don't get irritated with people who don't want cell phones! Just make definite plans with them, it's not that hard. I hate it when people expect me to rush out and buy an expensive, unnecessary luxury item that causes brain tumors and very toxic garbage, just for a tiny bit of convenience.
Paige

I keep thinking I should write a book titled SLAVES TO CONVENIENCE but this piece sort of beat me to it. I'm not sure what's sadder. That people are turning into mindless drones unable to do anything for themselves and trusting inherently unreliable technologies to do it for them, or that they've allowed themselves to become utterly addicted to gadgets which they'd probably never even heard of 15 years ago and yet now claim they can't live without. Note the Crackberry breakdown some months ago and companies panicking and individuals going into withdrawal because it didn't occur to these idiots to just go over to a pay phone and call in that way. And when the breakdown was over, had they learned anything from it? Nope, right back to using those undependable contraptions. Me? No cell just a 'real' phone, no Crackberry, no iPod, no ... I do have computers it's my job but no portables. Just desktops which stay at work or at home. When I leave the house, I'm happily free of such electronic leashes. it's quite liberating. If people need to get hold of me, they just call again later. If it's an 'emergency', that's what 911 is for.
S. Wolf

Yes we have become enslaved in this technoligical era but what is more disturbing is the effects it has on our choices of communication. Nowadays, one would rather suffice to email or a text message to apoligize for something. People are using technology as a wall to hide behind. Personally I believe a face heart to heart face to face apology speaks volumes more about your sincerity compared to a 5 second text using a cell phone.
Cooke Monster

The previous comments strike me as a case in point of how internet technology can provide a forum of thoughtful communication. There may be one more step involved in terms of communicating face to face that we can write about doing this but it can be more of a challenge to practice it or to ask others to do the same while they are interrupting the conversation to answer their cells. It seems that techno addiction is to be added to the constellation of other modern illnesses, especially those that make a profit for someone. These someones seem to have discovered that one leads to another: addiction to visual media helps to create a mindset for addiction to whatever Pharma's latest pill is. It is all based on externals anything to get us away from our inner selves, because that would mean that we might apply some critical thinking about what is really going on around us, as some of the above comments have mentioned. We tend to go to extremes when there is no center. I walked out into my yard and realized that this year there is no hum of bees in the new blooms. I find this disturbing. What can be done?
flock of birds

I admit that I use the internet on a daily basis for email, banking, entertainment and research, but I hardly believe that Im addicted in any serious way. The ability to access a vast amount of information at a moments notice is absolutely astounding and wonderful, and I do understand that to some degree it has created latent consequences that are both positive and negative, but it must be understood that our postindustrialnes s will force us into a new forum. The printed word, the radio , the television, the internet and wireless communication systems are obvious and natural technological evolutions and the ramifications of realization only has to look upon the multiplying dimensions that each has brought to our lives, namely commoditization industry. In my opinion, the culture of lifestyle consumption has ever so gradually coopted a forum that served to connect and inform the masses. The only difference the internet advertisements have over television is the speed, amount and accuracy that it targets its market.
Michael

I wonder. I've contemplated going a week without any technology, from cell phones to tv to video games, in an attempt to essentially 'detox' my mind of all the influence the media seems to have on me. But i found myself justifying the significance and importance of music. I wanted to keep my laptop, but only for music. shut down my wireless router, and unplug the boob tube. But, and this is a serious question i hope someone responds to, is my love of music among the things this author is talking about? Is music and i mean good, independent, free thinking music another form of control over me, something to worry about?
hymae 99

so usually I read other's comments before I comment, but I'm in a hurry here. I have noticed when trying to communicate with others my age - I'm 17 - that no one can really communicate fully, especially over important situations. Example: apologies are most frequently given through text. Like no one can confront problems face to face anymore, they have to message it, giving them time to word it perfectly and to avoid actual confrontation.
Taylor

i'm 15. Everybody at my school is obsessed with iPhones and all that. Its sickening. I had a cell phone and i gave it to a battered womens shelter. i dont miss it.
aras

I decided long ago NEVER to have a cell phone... people would know where I am if I had one.
Mike Smith

Alienation, technoboredom, neurosis, and frustration are not diseases of an unlucky few, nor even of the many. They are built into the structure of this society, twisting beggar and businessman alike, spitting them out like shards from a flawed machine, anemic shadows of human beings. Abrupt Flyer #3, Jun. 1991: abrupt.org.
GHM327myspace

Had a cell when I was in high school in 1999. Continued to use one for the next few years. Finally it got to me, and have now been unplugged for the last 3 years. No regrets.
Dubya

a bit narrowminded, no? perhaps you yourself are the problem, and not this devil technology. if all this horrible tech disappeared, i'm sure you'd have no trouble finding something else to complain about.
michael

I keep all of my notes for University on my lap top and having to study for finals on this bloody thing for so long has helped me realize how much I hate it. I've turned off my cell phone for the past little while just to help cope with it. I plan on turning off my lap top for a long while as well, once I get classes out of the way. Pretty obvious statements in the article, but true nonetheless.
B

I agree with Leanne and everyone else. Technology is becoming more and more antisocial over time. woohoo...
Lafawnduh

As McLuhan put it: Society prefers somnambulism to awareness. Mechanical Bride.
Sandy Carruthers

I've noticed a shift in our expectations regarding time and urgency. All too often email, faxes, cell phones, internet, etc. seem to be slowly eroding the notion of patience and thoughtful deliberation. Faster is better, is the new bigger is better. Surely, I'm guilty of the same but I try to keep perspective. I use all of the technology I've mentioned but try to keep in mind that it's all just a system of tools. Can you imagine a carpenter attaching as much importance to his hammer as so many people seem to give to their cell phones?
Crosby

the matrix that can be told of is not the eternal matrix... I really got a lot out of Neil Postman's he End of Education. It's a good book for people who like solutions, not just bitching.
rehash

technology is tools. shackles and cages are tools as are microscopes and zazen pillows. are we slaves to oxygen?
zx47

Corey, Cher, Luke, D. Mckenzie: You raise a valid and important point: technology is not inherently hegemonic, and there are ways to resist its pervasiveness; that's what mental detox week is all about. I'm glad you're finding ways to mediate technology's influence on your lives. However, to suggest that the solution is as simple as will power overlooks powerful mechanisms of normalisation that have become ubiquitous in the West. Try mentioning that you don't have a cell phone or blackberry for that matter in the middle of a business conference. Or observe the reactions that someone gets in a college/university context if she states she doesn't use facebook. I've observed an interesting combination of derision, pity, incomprehension, and very rarely a twinge of something bordering on respect. These are very basic examples, but they illustrate that our culture exerts enormous pressure to conform, to ormalise. I'm sure you can come up with many examples of how such pressures are subtly, but constantly exerted on us all. Does that make resistance impossible? Certainly not. It does mean, however, that anyone trying to diverge from the norm faces powerful currents of opposition. Excellent sources on this subject include Michel Foucault's Discipline & Punish and The History of Sexuality. Seriously. Worth looking at. That's not name dropping in an attempt to be trendy. I already know I'm not trendy. I don't think anyone here is trying to argue that computers, or any other modern technology, is pure evil. As aptly pointed out by Bishop, however, changes including the wholesale adoption and mainstreaming of technology often have unintended consequences, and there's no point in pretending that we can dramatically alter our way of living, our daily routines, the way we communicate with each other, etc., without heavy ramifications for the way we think, feel, and conceptualise ourselves. I'm certaily not advocating that we try to move time backwards, and do away with our new toys. I respectfully submit to you, though, that our culture does need to develop a dialogue about the unanticipated effects our rapid adoption of technology is having on all aspects of our lives. That's what forums like this are all about.
Matt

Of course nobody will admit to it until it is too late. WHAT AM I TALKING ABOUT? If only one person out there reads these notes and looks at this graphic, it will have been worth the time I spent. Are mobile phones wiping out our bees? Scientists claim radiation from handsets are to blame for mysterious 'colony collapse' of bees. They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hitech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world the abrupt disappearance of the bees. See graphic at: www.raithy.com/unpaid20.html
Raithy

Surprise yourself and shut off your internet connection at home. You will figure out ways to access it elsewhere when absolutely necessary. It will free you up to do more productive things this makes many assumptions about the necessities in your life, however. The cell phone thing is hard. Even the most staunch opponents to computer technology are tied grudgingly to their cell phones, ready to defend their addiction with excuses like I need it because it has become the norm for initial human connection a phone call usually leads to more intimate dialog..etc.. It's not the cell phone, it's your choice to use it.
Carrie

Well written. Wonder what generation next will be like?
abi

Its hard to start conversations in public places now since people always have earphones in their ears. Instead, people are dating online because when people go out now, they're not really in the moment, but instead grasping onto their phones awaiting those precious texts... very strange if you ask me.
Redking

you are only trapped if you let yourself be 'enslaved'. yes communication technology can be damning and draining and just plain rude... but you got to learn to switch it off when you need to, or put it on silent or vibrate when you dont want to be interruptionjolted and then prepare to decide whether or not to answer. People dont always have to be contactable but we live in an era were this is the norm... an life has begun to function around this norm you got to keep it all in balance. With the good also comes the bad.
Luke

Would any of us be able to debate with the person above without this technology...it has created a shrinking world. When something shrinks, you always lose something though.
Bishop

True. Contemporary technology does seem to have more of a tendency to enlsave. However, tehcnology is not inherently evil i.e.: forks, bicycles, ovens are all technology. I think it has more to do with our marketing saturated society causing us to believe we need all of this contemporary technology. What is needed is to look at technology as a tool and to muster the discipline to leave the cell phone at home, read a book instead of surf the web sometimes, or to enjoy occasional silence instead of the radio. We might not view ourselves as such victims of technology if we focus more on our ability to control our level of dependence on it.
M. Sandberg

I think it is rather cynical to call us technoslaves. I don't keep my mobile because I have an obsssesive need to feel connected. I keep it simply so that if the need arises I can call someone, or I can call them. Simple as.
Joe Hart

It's the masts and the microchips I'm against. Hence... no phone. Never once missed it. And Leanne is right about people who dump the conversation just to answer a call which fundamentally was only asking 'where are you?'. Always thought they were covert tracking devices. It's not even covert. Yer family and friends never leave you alone.
Bernie UK.

in my personal experience i have become detached from phone calls, but have seemed to develop a dependency on text messaging. i always have my phone on silent and rarely answer. but texts... i almost always respond. it gets to the point and the last thing i want is to get stuck in a 30 min conversation about nothing. so i'd rather speak to you in person, or text you... its simply becoming a way of life. the more we develop the more stressors can be formed. it will just be a matter of finding solutions to the effects that our developing world will cause.
C. Benitez

I got rid of my cell phone two years ago, and am happier for it. No, technology is not evil; its' inanimate. I have to stifle a laugh every time I hear a cell ring tone at full factory set volume or listen to people say they have to answer every call because they can't figure out how to bring up their voice messages. I'm never sure if it is lack of intelligence or laziness that causes some people not to venture past learning how to place and answer calls on their cell. Perhaps they were distracted by a shiny object.
GILGAMESH

I consider my cell phone exactly what the name is: a cell of foam. The cell is comfortable yet confining. The issue exist when the person calling you interrupts the person you are speaking to face to face. I will often silence my phone and use it like a pager, I can't get rid of it because this cell phone acts as a portal to responsibility and I am forced to keep myself celled. Turn off that electronic dog collar when you are with real peopel and talk the way were are intended to, face to face.
Filosophy

Do you choose to switch off and get in touch with ones self, family and the outside world we live in? Would this potentially make you fall behind as others race ahead with technological gain? A year in the 'wilderness' could mean be a lifetime in technospace.
Martin

I agree with Matt's point about mechanisms of normalisation in our culture. In my experience, not having a Facebook account can make life difficult, as most people at my university use it to facilitate sharing notes and courserelated information as well as a means of firing off party invites and chatting with friends. This normalisation means that, at my university at least, not being on Facebook means being left out academically as well as socially. As for mobile phones, I like to be contactable just in case something urgent or unforeseen comes up. While I agree with Luke about it sometimes being necessary to switch off one's phone or put it on silent/vibrate like when driving I want to be reachable in an emergency if a loved one is suddenly taken ill, for example. Personally, I like the feeling that I can be reached easily in case something does happen. That said, it is unbelievably annoying when I'm chatting to a friend and they start texting someone else midchat. People still don't seem to have realised that texts don't have to be answered immediately, unless the matter is pressingly urgent.
Alberta

WHOOOAAA! is this like the Matrix? Whhhoooa!
NEO

if you're going to slap down a list of potentially serious maladies caused by technology, you at least owe us the dignity of a citation for those claims.
delta sleep

Well as far as being trapped if I spend too much time on the computer, and then play guitar, it feels really refreshing. I am intelligent, and I have good will power. I have been using the computer tons over the last little while. WHY? Because I am starting a business, recording 2 albums, one comedy, the other music, and I'm working on various documentaries, and even spoof ads and such that would please many of the readers of adbusters. Ya, computers, pure evil. I am 140lbs, and in great health, other then a heart condition. I exercise and meditate. Lastly, while technology has radically altered the externals of life, it has done nothing demonstrable to enhance the internals: moral, emotional, philosophical and spiritual values. Really, so I havent learned anything, from the countless books, audio books, and shows, ranging from philosophy to science???
D. Mckenzie

I have a respect and appreciation for technology. But I've always suspected that it would be very easy to become totally beholden to it. Great article Eric!
Jack Dorf

it isn't that some people are enslaved if they let themselves be... instead it is true that some people are just more aware of the fact that they are enslaved. others are just too shallow to notice it, or too stupid to care. what humans gain through technology pales in comparison to what is lost especially if you consider things holistically, including the environmental impacts on the planet, the incredible destructive force of technological war, and so on. things like getting annoyed by one's cell phone seem trivial in comparison. suggested reading: the failure of technology, written in 1939 and just as portentious as Brave New World.
andronicus

I find it so aggravating when I'm in the midst of a conversation with a friend, only to lose them to a text/call. It's akin to being midconversation with the person on your right, stopping midsentence, and talking to the person on your left instead. SO RUDE!
Leanne

we are subject to what we allow. the underlying theme is that we don't want to interact with each other, ipods don't let you down, we do.
john hobbs

Name:
Your thoughts:

Note: To eliminate spam and other abuses, all comments must be manually approved by a moderator before posting. Rarely, this can take up to a couple of days. Legitimate comments may be subject to light editing for the sake of clarity.

To foster open dialogue, pointlessly abusive or threatening comments will be deleted, as will comments that clearly violate hate speech laws in Canada (where Adbusters' servers are located). A note from the moderator will always be posted to indicate that such a comment has been deleted.

If you have any comments or concerns about this process, feel free to email websubmissions[at]adbusters[dot]org.