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# Technology is good, until it poses a threat
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/technology-is-good-until-it-poses-a-threat/
- Published: 2005-06-14T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-25T00:15:25.000Z
- Author: David Pisarra
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*WHAT’S THE POINT?*

The world of technology has brought us many wonderful inventions. From the ability to do a full body scan where it used to be called “exploratory surgery” to the advent of cars that run on hydrogen, our world is exploding with possibilities.

According to Moore’s law, the processors in computers double in capacity every 18 to 24 months. That law has created an expectation now in the world of designers and users that our toys and tools will continue to get better and better faster and faster. Today, it sometimes seems like we’re living in the scene in “Willy Wonka” where everyone is in the boat, and they’re in the tunnel with the lights and the sounds and the weird Gene Wilder voice speaking “Faster, Faster.”

This is a good thing most of the time. I have a new toy in my Treo 650\. It works as a phone, a PDA, a computer, and now it gets my e-mail and text messages. For example, I just got a text message telling me the Michael Jackson verdict was to be announced at 4:30\. Very nifty.

I love this machine. I live on the phone. I regularly burn through 2,500 minutes a month on my cell phone alone. So for me to be able to write a column, draft an e-mail, send a short text message to a client, all from the same machine is a huge convenience for me. It provides me with a higher quality of life because I can now be having a “day off” at Lake Perris while jet-skiing, and I can still be responsive to my clients and partners.

The bad part of this is that I am now responsive to my clients and partners while I am trying to relax out at Lake Perris.

It also causes some odd life moments. For example, I was at jury duty on Friday (yes, lawyers get called for jury duty also) and those of us who use juries, understand and respect the process and don’t try to weasel out of it. Anyways, I was in the jury room, a 1,200-square foot encampment of bad chairs, old magazines, and horrendously thick Grand Jury reports that go unread, when I was checking my e-mail on my phone.

It was then that I received a notice from a cousin of mine that her mother had died. I personally think this is an inappropriate way to inform people that a member of the family has died. But then, I was informed two years ago that another cousin had died, by fax, so maybe it’s just me.

Still, it seems to me that the benefits of technology and the freedom it brings to us all need to be tempered with some civility and a general genteelness that is sorely lacking these days. I know that the trend towards casualness and “casual chic” is an outgrowth of the hip/hop generation, and that Hilton woman, but that is no excuse the wholesale tossing of manners and consideration.

Just because we are all in constant contact with each other thanks to cellular technology, doesn’t mean that all formality should be dismissed. Personally, I wish that as a society we would go back to the days when people dressed to fly or put on their fancy duds for a good restaurant.

One of the other things that I’ve noticed people are doing with greater frequency, is the reading of their e-mail on the phone, as they drive. This is beyond rude. It is freaking stupid.

I can believe that people are that obsessive about their e-mail that they would try to scroll through the spam while navigating their way to downtown in bumper-to-bumper traffic, I just cannot believe that they are that stupid.

This is something that needs to be corrected. The law should be that you are only to use the phone with a headset, and that using it to review your e-mail is a moving violation.

I also believe that if it is shown that you were reading your e-mail and were involved in an accident, then you should lose your license for a period of time. The risks are just too great.

Technology is great. It solves many problems and saves lives. But there are limits to what it can do, and what we should do with it. (David Pisarra is a partner in the Santa Monica law firm of Pisarra & Grist specializing in Business Development. He 310/664-9969 or by e-mail at)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 14, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/061405.pdf?ref=smdp.com)