Technology progress?

OK, I love technology... well, maybe not as much as Kip at the end of Napoleon Dynamite (thank gawd!), but I like to get me a good tech fix every once in a while...

Anyways, am I the only one who is a bit freaked out by the exponential rate of connectivity? I mean... about 15 years ago, cell phones came either mounted in your car or in a large bag with usage packages starting at $1 per 30 seconds. Less than 10 years ago, the Internet started taking off... in fact this is my 10 year anniversary of my first email account with Compuserve. Now, cell phones are mini-computers, and you can carry around about 20 CDs worth of music on something about the size of a credit card.

What's coming down the pike? I mean... doesn't it frighten you a bit that gadgets are coming out that will let you watch a virtual 42" projection screen with earbuds in a thing that looks like some really pimped out sunglasses??? And if you subscribe to a mobile TV service, you could watch David Letterman riding the train home from a bad date ... Regis and Kelly on a bench in the park having your morning cup o' Joe before you do the daily grind at the office ...

As the mother of two little ones (almost three and almost one), I look with cautious optimism to the future. While it will be great to have the technology to know where they are all the time, any time (and yes, I will buy two units once our daughters get to be dating age), what about our privacy? What about the implications for how our young people socialize?

I remember hanging out at the local arcade with my group of friends and cruising the mall. While I think that 80's trend led to an overly materialistic society (see overextended credit usage among 30-somethings, increase in home foreclosures, bankruptcies... etc., etc.), what will our overly tech-savvy generation lead to?

On the one hand, my almost three-year-old is not fascinated with stuff... because she watches mostly DVD movies, she is not exposed to the overly annoying commercials hocking everything from the latest My Little Pony to the (rolling eyes) Bratz. She has no idea these wonders even exist, so... consequently, she is not trying to grab everything in site to take it home and simultaneously cleaning out mom's wallet. That's nice... but is there a downside?

You know what... I'm not going to worry about it and will just ride this wave as it comes. After all, like any generation's obsession, there will be positive and negative ramifications. "Greed is good," Gordon Gecco says in 1988... Bernie Ebbers may not agree so much today.