Slashdot Mirror
Is Technology a Panacea for the Disabled?
osssmkatz asks: "I have lived all of my life with a physical disability, and have recently been beset by the typical claims that I am too obsessed by computers etc. This raises an important philosophical question for me. Throughout my life, technology has seemed a way around my limitations, but recently, I have become aware that it may not be. Is technology the ultimate panacea or does it, as Hamlet suggest, only seem to be so? I hope this question isn't too broad for Slashdot which has covered disability, technology and sociology issues in the past."
There are many people who's brains are either unable or are not very good at decyphering body language. People who are borderline autistic, and Jungian types such as INTJ (I'm one of them) fall into this category. For these people, talking over the internet is a relief from the daily embarrasing situations in real life. In text, you don't have to use the emotional processing parts of your brain to deduce if someone is happy by their facial expression. All you have to do is see, ":)". Simple.
Body language is a good thing for most people, but not all. The problem is that these 'most' people feel that the way they work applies to the rest of the human population. Body language is good, except when you can't interpret it correctly.