As the academic term ramps up for the Big Crunch at the end of the semester, I continue to marvel at the number of messages that are flying around through cyberspace and good 'ol paperspace. Sometimes I feel as if I am a member of the Borg Collective--you know, those strange creatures, all connected psychically, who lived in a humongous cube on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and always knew what all the others were thinking, in real time. As with the Borg, there are all these thoughts and all this information flying around and we are expected to attend to it, understand it, and respond to it. It's a wonder that anyone can keep up. And I must confess to a certain level of guilt if I fall down on the message-processing job, even if I only let it lapse for a day or two--sometimes even an hour or two!
As we move "forward" in this electronic, information-processing age, a huge challenge will be to find a way to be competent, conscientious, and effective--yet sane. I believe that this will, increasingly, become a quality of life issue as well as a mental health issue. Even if we don't have Borg-like implants in our heads, we are becoming every bit as connected. And I'm getting tired of all that connecting. Jean Luc--help me! Send a shuttle craft to take me away! I'm a cyberprisoner.
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