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Darren Kinzler ’25

Collage face with eye makeup.

Technology and the Dangerous Divide

According to the World Economic Forum, more than half the world now has access to the internet, a 43% increase since the year 2000 (Hillyer). Nearly parallel to the steady digitization of our world is the rise in artistic work and commentary on the new technology being developed. Movies, books, short stories, plays, music, and visual art have all evolved alongside technology, offering new interpretations and assessments of technological advancement.

Alexander Weinstein does just that with his collection of short stories, Children of the New World. Like any great science fiction writer, Weinstein uses the technologies we have available to us today and heightens them, asking many major what-if questions. In his short story “Openness,” the main characters, Andy and Katie, deal with levels of privacy and intimacy through digital access “layers,” not far off from the digital dating world that is prevalent today. In the titular  story “Children of the New World,” Weinstein explores what would happen if virtual reality truly was another reality, complete with sex and children. These stories make it clear that technology brings a deep disconnect within interpersonal relationships, as well as in the relationship between people and the tangible world.

When technology is abused in any context, it can come between people in all types of relationships: Friendships, siblings, relationships with significant others, lovers, and spouses can all be impacted. Weinstein expresses how romantic relationships can be destroyed by a reliance on technology in both aforementioned short stories. In “Children of the New World”, the unnamed narrator and his wife relish their virtual lives as parents and frequent sexual partners, a stark contrast from their monotonous vita reali. Their experiences in the New World are heightened so much that their lives outside of the “game” seem rather dull, “[f]or when [they] returned to [their] chambers at home and changed out of [their] clothes, [they] did so with cybernetic exhaustion…This, however, seemed a small price to pay for [their] online pleasures…” (89). In other words, they choose to give up genuine, human interaction for a fictionalized, “idealistic” version of it. This concept is mirrored in the romantic relationship between Andy and Katie in “Openness.” While they do not live together, Katie and Andy experience a similar divide thanks to their digital “layers” of openness to each other. Having been raised with the layer system, Andy has a very hard time acclimating to Katie’s life outside of the layers, out in nature. This fear of the real world makes it very hard for Andy to communicate with Katie with words, and when he finally says “I love you, too,” aloud, “[he feels] the sentences forming in [his] head, the words lining up as though waiting to be released. Without [his] layers, there [is] nothing to keep them from spilling out” (192). The weight of forming words vocally rather than sending a text is something that makes the human connection so uniquely beautiful. Andy’s reluctance to experience that is one of the dominoes that leads to the downfall of their relationship. This reflects how technology can worm its way in between people and pull apart interpersonal relationships of all kinds.

Not only does technology tear apart interpersonal relationships but it also impairs one of the most vital relationships that can exist, the relationship between people and the living, breathing world. By always escaping into a digital landscape, that deep spiritual connection humans have with the Earth is shattered, traded for a virtual, simulated fantasy world. The “ideal” version of the world is never the best because, as famous painter and ex-drill sergeant Bob Ross said, “Gotta have opposites, light and dark and dark and light, continually in painting…..It’s like in life. Gotta have a little sadness once in a while so you know when the good times come” (The Joy of Painting). If you are constantly living in a world programmed to be perfect, that joy can only last for so long. The unnamed narrator of “Children of the New World” and his wife both get so accustomed to the perfection of their programmed presence that their existence outside of the New World becomes nearly intolerable. As they enter their new world, “[t]he chamber’s darkness [gives] way to the light of the other world, the white walls of [their] online home appearing before [them], filling [their] teeth with electric joy” (84). The New World becomes a drug for the couple and many others, making it nearly impossible for them to live a fulfilling life outside of the New World. The only joy to them is the New World, and when their world gets corrupted the breakdown is severe due to the lack of appreciation for the real world. They had built everything they loved inside a merely temporary virtual world and when that fails, so too does their happiness. On an equal but opposite side of the coin is “Openness”, in which the digital layer system drives a wedge between Andy and Katie, as Katie enjoys living life in nature with her father and Andy struggles to disconnect, despite how intrigued he is by the real world. When he first disconnects from his layer system, Andy notes that “[t]here were no messages coming from anyone, no buzz-posts to read, just the three of [them] in the cabin and the hum of an ancient refrigerator” (187-188). It is these simple things in life that make it so worth living; not the chime of a notification arriving but the steady hum of a fridge, the chirping of birds, running water. Absorption in technology takes away from these things and Andy’s surprise at the simplicity of the real world shows how truly disconnected from reality he has become. Andy’s engrossment in his digital identity is a wall between him and the true world, drawing a bold line between him and reality.

A wedge between people, as well as people and the immediate and natural world, forms from the overuse of technology. If society continues to proceed towards technological domination without any limitations, the essence of what makes people real will be lost to the cold, unemotional world of ones and zeros.

Works Cited

  • Hillyer, Madeleine. “Here’s How Technology Has Changed the World since 2000.” World Economic Forum, 18 Nov. 2020, ttps://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/11/heres-how-technology-has-changed-and-changed-us-over-the-past-20-years/.
  • “Mountain Ridge Lake.” The Joy of Painting, performance by Bob Ross, Season 23, Episode 3, 17 Sept. 1991.
  • Weinstein, Alexander. “Children of the New World” Children of the New World, Picador, 2016, pp. 83-96.
  • Weinstein, Alexander. “Openness” Children of the New World, Picador, 2016, pp. 183-199.

Darren Kinzler