Posted on 04/07/2014 12:35:12 AM PDT by Olog-hai
A retired art teacher committed suicide at the Dignitas clinic because she was frustrated at the lack of interaction in modern life, because of our reliance on computers and the Internet.
The 89-year-old, who asked only to be identified as Anne before her death, was frustrated with the trappings of modern life, including fast food, consumerism and the amount of time people spend watching television.
Anne, a former electrician with the Royal Navy, was not terminally ill or seriously handicapped and traveled to Dignitas in Switzerland last month.
Before her death she told the Sunday Times: “People are becoming more and more remote … We are becoming robots. It is this lack of humanity.” …
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
The suicide rate by the elderly is high.
I agree with Anne.
I was at the doctor's office. EVERYONE was staring at their tiny screen with just their thumbs moving. Yup,robots.
I brought a book. I feel so dated.
I think this computerized age is hard on the old timers. I know it's difficult for me.
Cellphones should never been allowed to go further than being a phone.
Simpletons are easy to spot these days, thanks to the cell phone
Don’t worry about what the idiots around you are doing and concentrate on the important things like family and philanthropy .
Muslims are frustrated with modern life . . . just sayin’
except they ought to stop trying to take people with them when they check out . . .
With any luck all of the liberal professors will follow suit.
Successful social interaction seems to require a level of courage nowadays. The trend away from social interaction suggests a general lack of courage. Apparently, courage is “not cool”. If it’s true that it takes so much courage to successfully interact (even in your own hometown), then something has gone wrong...very wrong.
“I think this computerized age is hard on the old timers. I know it’s difficult for me.
Cellphones should never been allowed to go further than being a phone.”
I hear you, however you do realize you wouldn’t be on Free Republic if it weren’t for the computerized age. In fact there would be no Free Republic. Plus you sell yourself short. Obviously you were able to master the computer enough to be on FR at any time of your choosing.
As to cellphones. Parents with children in school are very happy that cellphones can now be used to send text messages on them, as they can keep track of their school age children on them, and not have to worry so much as to their whereabouts or safety. When stuck waiting in doctors’ offices (and with Obamacare that wait could indeed lengthen) you can pull out your iphone or tablet and settle in to checking out FR or otherwise surf the web or read a book or magazine online or do bills, or play a game or watch a movie.
Years ago we couldn’t have imagined a microwave oven, now we can’t easily live without them. My mom claimed she never wanted a microwave, until she was given one, and then she was hooked. Technology advances, and I am in general delighted with it.
No one writes letters anymore; however, I maintain more people are writing now than ever before in history because of the internet, IM’s and e-mails that have made the U.S. Post Office almost obsolete. I can send messages back and forth at whim to friends overseas at the speed of the send button, and those in the military can keep in constant contact with their loved ones via e-mails and visually through Skype. Imagine that. Napoleon couldn’t do that, lol.
There are good aspects and bad ones to most anything in life, the yin and the yang. I guess you just roll with the punches on the bad things and thrive amongst the good. I for one prefer to see the good in today’s world of communication, even though occasionally its darker side gains some ascendancy. I just wouldn’t go back to the days of yore (except for in Hollywood acting) thinking that those days were so much better. In some ways yes, in many more ways, no.
To each its season, t’is the computer age, and believe me, existing in it is no reason on God’s great earth to decide to take an overdose of barbituates to end one’s life. That is the coward’s way out. Even if the woman ended up in a nursing home, she could have had friends there and social activities and some meaningful interactions. And nursing homes aren’t prisons; friends can come over and family and friends can take their loved ones out for visits. Granted, growing older, with its associated aches and pains isn’t necessarily a bowl full of cherries, but it still has its plusses, and it sure beats the alternative. Life is what you make of it; make lemonade.
“Years ago we couldn’t have imagined a microwave oven, now we can’t easily live without them.”
Not altogether true.
Anne was 89. In good health for that age. She should have been counseled or treated for depression not allowed to ship herself off to be euthanized because people like Facebook.
I'll offer your statement that "more people are writing now than ever before in history because of the internet, IM’s and e-mails (etc.)." I'm not sure very much of this counts as "writing" by any objective measure. More and more of this "writing," as I see it, is in the form of e-mail and text messages that are spelled like something I'd expect to get from someone who is being held hostage.
With every step forward in one area of life, it seems like we're taking two steps backwards somewhere else.
“Life is what you make of it; make lemonade.”
Assuming that life’s lemons are all that’s available? Don’t be too quick to settle for less. However, there does seem to be a ‘drive’ to have people do just that.
“Not altogether true.”
Not much untrue, lol. You won’t find many abodes without them, unless your Amish.
“With every step forward in one area of life, it seems like we’re taking two steps backwards somewhere else.”
No we aren’t. I maintain it’s probably how you prefer to look at life. The old glass half empty or glass half full thingy. How many Freepers do you think are over the age of 50? I maintain most of them.
frustration with modern life
Ho could have moved to a muslim country and lived in the dark ages.
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