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Technology and Communication     Oh, I’m sorry. I was listening to my iPod.     Oh, wait, let me see, maybe I can hook this up to play the music for you.     You know, I was thinking about it - advancements in technology have been a wonderful thing, and many say it’s brought the world closer together, have kept people more connected. And on some levels I can totally agree with that - I mean, I read submissions from email, saving paper and ink and postage, I keep magazines on line so people around the world can read good writing, I’ve even had musicians from Wisconsin, Ohio and Tennessee find my readings and set music to my words.     But in the same respect, I sit all day at the same desk, staring at the web sites for the domain names I run, instead of actually meeting and working with people. I mean, at one point, the people i emailed the most lived in the same city as me, and were only a local call away. in fact, one of my friends lived a block-and-a-half away from me, on the same street as me, but i still emailed her as much as i’d call her, even though i could just walk over to her house and have an actual conversation with her.     And even the phone, with cell phones you can carry a phone with you wherever you go, so you’ll never be lonely, but it seems to give teenagers another reason to talk endlessly on the phone... And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to attack someone at a bar, who is there with friends, who gets a walkie-talkie-style call from someone, and they take turns screaming their heads off to get little phrases to someone who couldn’t even be there with them.     I mean, the iPhone just came out, combining a cell phone with an iPod, as well as email and Internet web browsing. But some bits of technology allow you to tune the world out, like the iPod here. When people see these headphones on someone, they know that you’ve apparently found something bigger and better than them for their lives right now... But even without technology, when I go for walks every morning, I wear the iPod, but I also wear sunglasses, even if it’s overcast, so no one knows if I am studying every person I pass. With a lot of the technology we have now, we can learn about the rest of the world - or we can tune out the rest of the world and ignore any news that doesn’t fit in with what we want to believe. Copyright © 2007 Janet Kuypers. U.S. Government Copyright © 2004 Chicago Poet Janet Kuypers on all art and all writings on this site completed before 6/6/04. All rights reserved. No material may be reprinted without express permission.