In an opinion piece for the New York Times, Jonathan Safran Foer (award-winning author of Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close) contemplates the implications of living in a society full of “iDistractions,” arguing that the increased daily use of new technology might be limiting our capacity for empathy and compassion.
He argues that the efficiency granted by technology is only meaningful if the saved time is used to foster the intimacy and richness of our relationships with one another. “It’s not an either/or — being ‘anti-technology’ is perhaps the only thing more foolish than being unquestioningly ‘pro-technology’ — but a question of balance that our lives hang upon,” he says.
