It is hard to remember a time when we weren't plugged in constantly anymore. I have been accused of being a luddite because I sometimes rail against technology while, at the same time, being completely addicted to it. As I write this, I am using something called a � netbook.” This is a tiny laptop-like device with a powerful little internal antenna that just looks for wireless internet connections. I am borrowing a neighbor's evidently. The signal is weak, but still enough for me to get online and open up my various chat programs.

My cell phone has a slide-out keyboard and I am the King of Texting. I will see a call come in from a friend and let it got to voicemail only to text that person a response. Does it make any sense? Hell no, but it's what I do and that's just what you need to deal with. It's “how I roll” as the kids say today. Well, they probably said it a long time ago and have a new phrase because by the time the phrases get around to me they tend to be out of date.

My cell phone communicates with a satellite at all times. It updates the time automatically when the time changes or I change time zones. It has GPS and can guide me just about anywhere I want. I can access the internet. I can take photos and send them anywhere instantly. I can take videos. I don't have much to take photos or videos of, but should I suddenly decide to record my life in photo or video form, I have a method that easily fits into my shirt pocket. I can access chat programs. I can check my e-mail.

In theory all of this should make us all more efficient productive creatures. Yet, that just doesn't seem to be happening. Instead, we seem to be more stressed, more worried, and more pre-occupied with other things. It's like the constant stream of information, available almost directly into our brains, is overloading us slowly while, at the same time, taking away our ability to do what should be simple things.

I feel sorry for the map makers of the world. Map making used to be a fairly revered profession. During the days when it took the better part of a year to get anywhere, the map makers of the world were relied upon to be as accurate as possible, and provide as much information as they could. Ships relied on maps and details about how deep the waters were to find their way anywhere. Of course, the early map makers, if they lacked information, were just as likely to type “here there be monsters” as attempt to find out what was really there, but that adds to the charm in some ways. People like to collect those ancient maps these days.

At some point the profession kind of lost its glamor. I am betting it happened about the time the printing press came into being. No longer did you need painstakingly hand-drawn maps. Now you could just ask Steve the Map Guy to draw one and then make a billion copies of them for anyone who wanted them. Still, to appreciate the damn things you still had to know what all of the lines and numbers meant. It took some skill to read a map. It took even more skill to know how to unfold and refold them and then stuff them back into your glove compartment.

These days, you can just type where you want to go into your phone or your GPS device mounted on your dashboard and it tells you where to go. I still like maps because I like to know where the turns are well ahead of time, rather than a few seconds before they have to be made. I don't care how polite and potentially sexy the female voice on my GPS device is, I don't want to hear “turn left...NOW!”

I think GPS is a great thing, don't get me wrong. I just wish it didn't have to take away an ability for us to use them. Years from now people will stare at the maps we used to use and wonder exactly what kind of morons we were. They, meanwhile, will have implants in their head from birth that will send information about where they want to go directly to the direction-centers of their brains. They will just need to think “I want some Chinese food” and the implant will immediately tell them where they can get some.

There are already children who have no idea what it is like to walk around and not have a cell phone with them at all times. There will be children who have no idea what it is like not to have texting and e-mailing capabilities in their pockets. If this meant that it made them more productive or better communicators, I would say this was a major advancement for human kind, but I fear it will do the opposite.

Spelling is already the first victim. People would rather “LOL” than actually laugh out loud. The vowels of the world need to be added to the endangered species list along with Sumatran Tigers. Before too long newspapers, if any still exist, will be filled with vowel-less paragraphs written in text-speak.

Data will just get faster. Our brains, somehow, will adapt. News and information will be funneled right into your brains without us having to even look anything up. You just wait. It is probably being worked on write now even as I write this. As I write this on a miniature computer that connects me, automatically, to the largest store of information (and porn) on the planet.

Not long ago computers took up entire rooms. It really wasn't that long ago. Even in the mid-1970s computers were still huge. The computer Matthew Broderick used in “War Games” to bring the world to the brink of total destruction seems quaint and cute by today's standards. It has all happened so fast and people just adapt and then they move on. We have lost the ability to read maps, use vowels, communicate in full sentences, read books and newspapers, and relax.

The constant flow of information is leading to a world of overloaded, stressed people. At one time to had to wait until certain times of the day to get your news and then it was only a half an hour. These days you have your choice of several 24-hours news channels. If that isn't enough you can also get news from your cell phone, netbook, or computer. Not all of it is accurate, but who cares, we have to get information on the site and on the air. So, accuracy falls by the wayside. It is easier to apologize than ask permission, they say. I would suggest it is easier to say something wrong and apologize later than check your facts.
So, my suggestion, is to take a few moments and unplug. Just do it after you read my column, though.