Computers are so de-humanizing!

Okay, obviously anyone who reads this is going to be in a prime position to take immediate exception to the title statement ... at least, I'd certainly hope so.

So, the statement is a quote from someone we knew some twenty years ago and, in her eyes, was simply a statement of fact.  Now, before you jump to an assumption, she did have a computer, used it regularly and was reasonably competent with it.  This, of course, made her part of an elite minority at the time.

But her assertion was what she believed (and, today, she'd probably include the internet in this).  It's also something that I'd love to rub her face in, yes, but we lost contact a couple of decades ago.  Be that as it may.

The reason it has come to mind is that, in the past week, computers and the internet have brought me very human contact in so many forms.

Yesterday, I met a friend -- we've corresponded for a week or more about geocaching -- and took her and one of her mixed lab/ridgeback puppies on a geocaching expedition.  I had a blast and so did they (four interesting finds in a relatively short time)... and, now, she's thoroughly hooked (her first find did that) and is planning on taking her husband and kids out today.

And I've already talked about Reba (see Say "Hello" To Reba) and how the internet has brought her to us as well as a number of offers to assist in training, etc.,  but here's the content of an email from this morning:

Congrats, Ben!  My grandmother’s name was Reba – she died this July at 92.5 and was a smart, funny and amazing woman. May your lovely new dog share some of that energy!  I really enjoyed reading your photo blog.  Thanks for sharing.

... and this is from someone whom I have not met ... but whom I am pleased to consider a friend.

Computers are so ... yeah!

And if each and everyone of you can't cite many, many dozens of reasons for refuting the title statement (I don't think you need a long list of examples from me, I just wanted to get you thinking about it) then you have my very sincere sympathies (which, we hope, is another human trait ... delivered to you via computer, of course).

Computers!

There are some really bad programmers and monolithic corporations whose primary interest is profit (and, of course, there's also Linux) but, as much as we may want to blame these humans for their callousness and mistakes and pure stupidity ... we sure do love our computers ...

... because they are so humanizing, right?

Postscript:  a few minutes after I posted this page, I received another email ... offering us another puppy.  Got to love it all!