I am of the opinion that there ought to be classes at school that teach kids how to deal with new technology and how to get by in the 'wired world` or 'information age` - to use two of the catchy phrases from the dictionary of 'techno-speak`.
I`m serious about this though - the world is changing far too fast these days, thanks to technology, and people have hardly been introduced to a new technology before it is outdated and has been replaced by something else.
Think about it. A dozen years ago there were probably five people in the country with cellphones, but today there are some people that have five different cellphones.
Not to mention PDAs, palmtops, tablet PCs, Bluetooth and WiFi adaptations, and the forthcoming 'smart` clothing and appliances.
There is no time to get used to the latest technology. My great grandmother struggled to get used to the concept of the telephone, just as my grandmother couldn`t quite grasp the essence of television.
And these were inventions that were slow on uptake and took ages to actually become essential items in a household, rather than being thought of as fancy gadgets for rich folk.
Children need to be taught how to handle the ins and outs of new technology, because it is changing all the time and if you cannot adapt quickly to it - and I don`t mean the actual machinery, but rather also the social and psychological implications it has for us - you may find that it will be the death of you. Literally.
In health terms, we have had to adapt quickly to the changing environment. Recent reports have suggested that cellphone radiation may reduce a man`s sperm count by up to 30%.
Infertility due to the fact that we carry phones in our pockets is not something that my parents ever had to worry about, that`s for sure.
Then, of course, there are the social and psychological effects of new technology. I mean, is there a teenager in this country that doesn`t own a funky, brightly coloured cellphone?
Cellular phones are to this current generation what Levi jeans were to my generation - a status symbol that denotes your position in the high school hierarchy, which is why a young man in India killed himself after his mother refused to buy him a cellphone when all his friends had one.
Also in India, another student killed herself after receiving an incorrect text message on her phone, which claimed that she had failed her board examination.
A dozen years ago there were probably five people in the country with cellphones, but today there are some people that have five different cellphones.
Rodney Weidemann, Journalist, ITWeb
Now you wouldn`t kill yourself if your bank statement showed you suddenly had no money. You would at least try and find out what had gone wrong first, but this student simply assumed that her school was right, possibly because she didn`t have any better frame of reference in terms of dealing with this new technology.
So will technology be the death of us?
Perhaps, although it is not all doom and gloom, since there are people out there who are adapting to it in much the same way that the proverbial duck takes to water.
A Hong Kong man recently convinced his daughter to stop committing acts of truancy, fighting, hanging out in Internet bars and taking drugs, thanks to an Internet chat room.
The man adopted an online persona and used it to build up a rapport with his daughter, allowing him the opportunity to pass on pieces of wisdom to make her mend her ways.
In Singapore, busy doctors have taken to sending SMSs on intensive care patients` conditions to their relatives, meaning that concerned family members can be kept abreast of how their loved ones are doing, without having to physically be present to chat to the doctor.
So it seems that maybe technology is the latest driver in human evolution. It may not be quite what Charles Darwin had in mind, but the principle certainly holds.
Those that adapt to technology quickly will ride the new wave, while those that cannot evolve with it are doomed to fall further and further behind.
And that is my cue to crawl back into my little pond filled with primordial soup...
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