pwned

If you're not very familiar with the Internet, you may have never seen that term: "pwned". Typically you'll see "You got pwned!" It is a product of technology. Apparently a while back in the midst of a multiplayer video game a player intended to say that his opponent was "owned" and hit the "p" key (next to the "o" key) by mistake. The typo caught on and it is a common term on the Internet today. So, what does it mean? It means that "You are owned", that you are in submission, you were bested, you are of no consequence, that the other person who "owns" you rules and you don't. Welcome to the 21st century.

I am interested in the purely technological product here because it is such an image of technology itself. I would suggest that in a vast majority of people today we are "pwned" by our technology. Do you doubt it? Imagine life without it and see how far you get.

Just 20 years ago a cell phone was unheard of. Very few had "mobile phones". It wasn't an issue. Today, how long would the average 12-year-old survive without his or her cell phone? Parents have protested when schools tried to ban them from classrooms. They are mandatory! Why not just ban water and bathroom breaks? No cell phones?! Don't be ridiculous!

Personal computers have been around since the mid-80's (essentially), but only in real use since the '90's. That's right, just 20 years. Prior to that a computer in your home was science fiction and, seriously, what real need did your average citizen have for a computer? Try to remove computers from homes today and you'll likely handicap people. You would certainly disable their cars, since all vehicles today have computers in them. It's not that they're helpful; it's that they're necessary. Life could not continue without them.

Go further back. Television has been around since the '50's (basically). It was before my time. It has, for all intents and purposes, been part of our lives since the beginning of time, so to speak. How many of us would be willing to go without a TV? How many of us can imagine a life without the television? It's necessary! There's one in the main room of your house, I'm pretty sure, and in all likelihood one in other rooms as well. You may even have cable or satellite TV because everyone knows watching one or two or three local transmissions is insufficient. We need thousands. "Need!"

Every time a cell phone rings in church or a driver texts on the road, every time the theater has to tell patrons to silence their phones, every time that you rush off to watch your favorite TV show, you form your opinions from the current entertainment field we refer to as "news", you skip a family gathering to play your favorite video game, every time your technology drives your life, you got pwned. We don't own our technology; it owns us. Our technology is supposed to serve us, but who gets served now? No, technology isn't evil on its own, but we sure are making it look that way by our worship of it, aren't we?