Current mood:

depressed

Disturbing Trends


http://www.wtop.com/?sid=547456&nid=25

This story disturbs me on a number of levels. As a mother of a young child obviously it disturbs me. As many of the people who might read this would not be aware of the geography, this woman did this and kept on driving for almost 2 hours before the police stopped her. This was a not a case of drop off, drive a few feet and see if a lesson was learned. She wasn't coming back. Secondly, I-495 is probably one of the busiest roads on the East Coast. That good semaritans found this child and not an accident with a tractor trailer or a predator is a gift from somewhere to this little boy.

It is impossible for me to wrap my mind around how someone could think like this but at the same time...it fits in disturbingly well with something I've been thinking about recently.

There is a lot of talk about the effects of the internet and e-mail, especially e-mail in the corporate world. My company -which you all know how well we all communicate...or don't- is a prime example of what is called managing through e-mail. Very rarely is there any face to face interaction and it's safe to say that this remote form of management allows for a certain...disassociation between people.

People...become disposable commodities in this cyber world. It becomes way to easy to forget that there is a person on the other end of that e-mail or that IM. A person with quirks and foibles, feelings and hopes. It's easy for managers to loose sight of their employees as people with families and senses of humor, strengths and weaknesses.

It becomes way to easy to think of people as nothing more than a flip of the power switch, a click of the mouse a stroke of the enter key.

Makes me wonder if that sentiment is starting to manifest itself outside the cyber world as well. When I worked as a Vet tech I saw it all the time with people's pets.

Cat clawed the furniture...put it down.
Cat needed insulin for the rest of it's life to control diabetes...too much work, get rid of it.
I read an article where a man brought his pets into the local shelter to have them destroyed because he was going on vacation and didn't want to pay boarding fees.

Now, we have a mother leaving her 4 year old child on the side of a dangerous busy freeway...HITTING HIM with the car when he tried to get back in and driving off with no more thought about him then if he was an empty soda can she threw out the window.

It's disturbing...