Technology: Crack for the lazy?

As someone who makes a good living off the advances in the technological area, I find it funny sometimes how reliant/addicted to technology many are; including myself. In the last week I have spent over $100 on accessories (granted, they are needed) for my iPhone. Today, I considered buying another accessory for my iPhone for my car (a speaker system that can also charge my phone) which would cost me a little over $100. I have a huge battery issue with my iPhone and frequently find myself running out of juice and needing a charge; hence the consideration of the purchase. Now some might ask, "what am I doing that I have money to burn on iPhone accessories?". The answer is saving like I used to years ago - that will be another post topic LOL

I remember the last time I left my phone home accidentally. It's like walking around naked. No phone calls (although I rarely answer calls at work anyway), no text messages (get those all day LOL) and no e-mails (my iPhone actively checks, or pushes to, three e-mail accounts). So it was a weird day. But the ironic thing about that day; I had no missed calls, no text messages and the e-mails I got that day lacked urgency, or at least were not so important that I needed to read them as they were sent. So how is it that I get contacted so much when I have my phone, yet am hardly contacted at all when I forget it?

I digress...

For me, technology pays my bills, books my tee times, feeds me sushi and sends me on vacations. But it also makes my life more convenient. Think about it. You'd like to see your family more, right? I know I want to. But 24 hours just isn't enough time anymore. For those family members who are technically inclined, an e-mail or text maintains that contact, provides a "checkup" for you and tells them, "I can't get to you but I'm thinking about you". But technology also makes us lazy; makes me lazy. I just recently started wearing a pedometer on my hip at work to see how much walking I do on a typical day. I found out I walk 1.2 miles during the course of a day, which isn't much. I try to work out at home when I can. But I'm looking forward to finishing my basement because I have my eye on some fitness equipment to put down there (bench, weights and a treadmill - BTW treadmills are expensive!!).

Karl Marx once said, "The production of too many useful things results in too many useless people." Frank Lloyd Wright noted, "If it keeps up, man will atrophy all his limbs but the push-button finger." I am neither trying to become useless nor all thumbs :-)