Out of all the costumes that were supposed to invoke fear on Halloween, by far the scariest outfit I witnessed was a small boy, not 3 or 4, who was dressed as an iPhone. While I admit that the costume’s accuracy was impeccable and he did look quite adorable, it perfectly exemplified my innate fear of technology’s dangerous influence on our lives and its uncanny ability to undermine our humanity.

I am proud to say that I do not own a smart phone and I plan on holding out for as long as I can before I buy one. It is true that many of the applications are impressive and helpful for our daily routines, but I also think that it is has destroyed the legitimacy of the human connection. There is nothing more bothersome than a dinner table full of people browsing Facebook on their smart phones instead of conversing with one another. When you sit down with a friend for dinner, you have a unique opportunity to explore each other’s interests through a face to face conversation. Unfortunately, this is becoming increasingly rare as people opt to browse the Internet or text with someone who isn’t around.

I additionally fear the ramifications of using the internet as a forum for anonymity. It’s wonderful that our generation has access to copious amounts of information that the Internet provides, but in some ways we have lost the value of respectable human interaction. I can’t count how many people on YouTube, or any Internet forum for that matter, decide that they need to call another human being a “faggot” or “shithead” or “stupid fuck,” because they can mask themselves behind anonymous usernames. Clearly, most people would not interact this way in person, but the opportunity to insult one another without any legitimate repercussions is irresistible to cowards.

At what point do our lives on the Internet become our reality? It used to be that one would have to actually log onto a computer and browse the internet and then eventually close the laptop and walk out into the real world. With the development of smart phones we have the lovely burden of carrying the internet with us everywhere we go.

Perhaps the scariest recent development is the Google Glass which will be released later this year. People will literally never have to look away from the Internet again. I had the opportunity to view one of these recently, and although admittedly it’s nifty, I couldn’t help but feel like I was a cyborg from some corny science fiction movie. I was able to see any webpage through one of my eyes and still comprehend the outside world through my other. What truly disturbed me was that at times I was incapable of determining which was my actual reality; the web page or the world? I think this a moment in which technology is overstepping its bounds.

There is no doubt that there is no way to slow down the development of technology and as students, it has made life considerably easier. Instead of boycotting the development electronics, we should consciously recognize the negative potential that technology has on our human lives. While I do think that we are a long way off from losing the human element of the machine, I forever have a nightmarish vision of our children not only indoctrinated into technology, but literally becoming one with it.