Technology Dependent

Some people think that we are becoming too dependent upon technology.  Perhaps because of the simple fact of how often we use technology.  Just walking down the street it is hard not to see someone using a cell phone, perhaps you are that person yourself.  Others believe that technology is the best thing that could happen to us and embrace all new changes and gadgets that come out.  I couldn't help think about this as I read the passage in Feed, by M.T. Anderson, about the computers that we use today;

"They carried them around outside of them, in their hands, like if you carried your lungs in a briefcase and opened it up to breathe."

Computers, in future portrayed by this book, have become almost like a physical part of these people.  They are connected with mind, almost as if the Internet of today and our brain could communicate directly.  This comes with huge benefits, like "knowing" almost limitless amounts of information, storing memories and experiences that can be shared with others directly, and even communicating in a telepathic manner.  However there are drawbacks as well as continuous commercials and ads are being played through the "feed" and directly into the mind, with seemingly no way to bypass or stop them.  At times it even influences the spending of the person or their thoughts. 

This technology even becomes so ingrained in everyday life that it is physically, and mentally, difficult to be without it.  The "dead air" that is present in the mind of the un-connected brain is troubling and even bothersome. 

One of my main problems with the idea of a technology like this is that it does not actually make a person any physically better.  Even though a person could access any and all available information with a "feed" it would not make them smart.  It's kind of like if Steven Hawking told my 5 year old sister what to say in order to explain a complex theory of physics.  She would be able to repeat the words but that doesn't mean she can understand what she is being told. 

So becoming as dependent on this kind of a technology, like the people in the world of Feed are, does not appeal to me.  It doesn't help you think any better, in fact it seems like the beginning of a story like the The Machine Stops.  People become dependent on a technology that just spoon-feeds them what they need and are not able to live when it breaks down or malfunctions.