Thank you, Michael Brannigan. Finally, a publicly recognized figure speaks out emphatically against the destructive excesses of our overreliance on our digital/instant-access technologies ("Technology only hurts interaction," March 29). Common sense told us this long ago, but common sense is a distant memory in an era ruled by technology.
To say that these technologies connect us qualifies as double-speak. In reality, they do just the opposite, which explains why kids today are so desperate for human contact and must constantly be texting and twixting their friends.
As Mr. Brannigan tells us, the kids who grew up in this techno-culture would rather text their friends than spend time with them. They simply have never experienced any other way of life.
If this fact doesn't frighten you, it should, because it scares me. We have entered the "pathway to perdition" and don't even realize it. We have allowed our technologies to completely take control of our lives and now entered the "Brave New World" that writers like Aldous Huxley, Arthur C. Clarke and Ray Bradbury warned us about back in the '40s and '50s.
Joseph H. Vanderpool
Rensselaer