Is technology ruling our lives?

It's always dangerous to take things for granted. Even more so if it concerns our personal lives, and there's no way around it: technology has been invading our personal lives in recent years. Time to stop for a moment and think about what this means - or listen to Sherry Turkle telling us what it means:

• children compete with technology for the attention of parents;
• technology (at least social networks) give us the illusion of companionship without the efforts of friendship;
• the 'always on' mentality makes us vulnerable, as we lose the habit (and the benefits) of being alone
• online communication make it harder to fix problems since we only share what makes us look good.

Probably the most striking quote: 'if we don't teach children to be alone, they will only know to be lonely'

I must admit I was a bit skeptic in the beginning of her speech, but in the end it gave me plenty to reflect on...