paranoid much?

This article  is decently written, and has some really good points about how as a species we are disconnecting from people the more technology gets introduced. However, the paranoia the author tries to induce by talking about the glow of television sets is just a bit over the top:

"Travel down any average suburban American street and no longer will you see people outside talking to their neighbors or children playing, these activities having been replaced by the blue glow of the television that can be seen emanating from every window."

Ya. I believe that tv is a time-sucker and a bad one at that, and don't think I've watched any tv for months. Netflix rocks, because I can see any series without being subjected to the commercials or the high cable bill. I know that it's a method for marketers to sell shit to people who want meaning and fill their lives with "stuff" instead of making a better effort. I do the same thing when I'm depressed. I go to the yarn store and feeeeeeel the yarn for an hour, and then I feel better. I don't usually buy much, but the compulsion is there. I do not, however, believe that we're headed to a Matrix-like society and our bodies will waste away as we live an Utopian existence on the screens of our computers. The people who wig out on these theories need to go outside their parents' basement once a year and take a goddamn walk.