Working Class.

Remember the book "1984"? Let me give you a quick reminder. Every time you've seen some kind of reference to "Big Brother", and the idea of the government keeping tabs on everyone, and forcing us to think and act a certain way, that's a reference to "1984". Essentially it's about control, power and what it means to be an individual.

Lately there's been a number of different cellphone companies that have been promoting their new networking features that allow you to keep tabs on what your friends post on Facebook, Twitter, and even what they email you.

I'll let that sink in for a moment.

First off, unless you're travelling the world with a suitcase filled with active grenades, wearing clothing made out of barbed wire and electrical tape, and you're band just got a record deal with God's Records there's nothing you could possibly be doing in your day to day life that would make me want to keep tabs on it. Fundamentally, Facebook is an okay idea. It's a way to keep in touch with people you may not normally keep in touch with because of distance, or whatever. The issue I have with it is that people leave and make posts about the most mundane of events, and then ask you, "Did you see my - insert useless event - post?" It's really quite ridiculous. What happened to the days where you'd hang out with people, maybe take some photos and make a photo album? Now it's all on Facebook with the errant assumption that the world wants to see another picture of you and you friend forcing your cheeks so tightly to one another, a cursory glance could suggest you were conjoined twins.

I've got plenty of memories of things I've done with my friends. I keep them in my head and in my heart. I don't require a website to stand in as concierge to my life, I'm fully capable of sitting down, sharing a drink and reminiscing about fun times I've had with my friends.

Now, I don't want to say that all Facebook is bad. There are groups that have formed on Facebook with the intent to do good, and having a forum like Facebook to gather on is fantastic. However, I do feel as though this does allow some people to develop the illusion that they're contributing, but simply being part of a group that actively seeks to end abuse towards animals (as an example) is hollow, unless you go out into the real world, and act upon your stances. Though, now it seems we're back where we started. The real world has everything in it you need to do what you want to do. You don't need a website to compel you to become a better person. If you want to, you have that fire inside yourself and you need to get off your ass and do it. If you want to stay connected to your friends, give them a call (I said call, not text) on the phone, and arrange a meeting.

Fuck cellphones, by the way.

We have become too plugged into the Tweets, Facebook postings, Myspace menageries, text demands, and the ringing of cellphones. I am reminded of my group of friends. Several of them apparently have Blackberry's for left hands. A questionable appendage, but evidently quiet important to them. These are tools that have become organs, and their lives are channelled through these devices. It's as if the palm PC and cellphone have become a sort of spy hole that us outsiders must peer through, if we wish to speak to our friend in solitary confinement within. Plastic and glass wardens that yield to requests we makes to speak with one another.

Now the argument is that these are busy times and you need to stay connected.

Bullshit.

The greatest things you will ever accomplish in life will not involve a cellphone, or social networking tool. If you're working a job that demands you to be glued to one of those devices, then you're working for a corporation that's brainwashed itself into thinking that the only way to excel in business is to know what everyone in your company is thinking seconds after they think it, if not seconds before. The catch, though is that all of this technology is killing the human element. The employment of brackets and colons to emphasize an emotion is a step in the wrong evolutionary direction. Of the hundreds of business I have shopped at, worked at or even heard of, the ones that I return to most frequently are the ones with a strong human element. "Mom and Pop" style businesses who don't even have computers on site, but rather cash registers and customer savvy. These are the companies that will always exist. While the giants fight over the land and sea, the fly and mouse will find space to live in between.

All I'm trying to say is, turn off the cellphone for a while. Go a day, then a week, then a month and start to realize that your life doesn't fall apart. You may lose some connections to people you knew, but that's okay. It's not worth keeping in touch with people for no other reason than to just "keep in touch". True friends, honest and loving people who want to spend time with you, and you with them will continue to keep contact, even if they have to write you a letter and send it by post.

If our lives are so dependent on wireless life support, then we should have pulled the plug a while ago.