A shovel can be used to whack someone over the head, or it can be used to dig a hole. It is a tool, and how a tool is used is up to the user. I use the shovel analogy, because it gets attention and is kind of humorous in a dark way, but the truth is that we use tools everyday, and not always in the best way. I suppose if you want to put a starting date on the introduction of tools, it would have to be the industrial revolution. Sure, we had tools before that, but really that was when all hell started to break loose, and we have not really looked back. I'm not sure we could even turn our heads to look back, due to the breakneck (pun intended) speed at which we are hurtling forward technologically. When I graduated from college 29 years ago (wow - was it really that long ago?) personal computers were brand new and the internet was just a newborn. There were no browsers, ipods, iphones, DVD's, PVR's, MSN, Facebook, Twitter or MySpace. If you had a 'cell phone' it weighed about 20 pounds and was bolted to your car floor and it cost you around $2000.

TV was the first technological 'tool' of the masses that started to change our way of life. From there, the internet, mobile devices like Blackberries, iPhones etc are the tools that are changing our lives today, and not always for the better.

Of course, all of these things are just tools, like the shovel. We decide how to use them. The problem today is that most times we don't really think about making choices about how or when to use these tools. We just get caught up in the hype and plunge forward, like lemmings off a cliff.

iPhone apps like Poop the World or Baby Shaker or iFart are examples of using a tool for purposes with little redeeming social value. Sure they are funny (well except Baby Shaker which is just plain stupid.), but how can we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars (probably millions) to hear farts or see where people are pooping, when that money could be spent on the environment, health care, poverty, food production, etc.?

I have a Blackberry, which I use for email, telephone, text messaging and GPS navigation. I don't have any games on it, and I sure don't have any silly apps that are purely entertainment.

Don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with entertainment and games, but they should be a diversion for a small percentage of our life, not 80% of what we do every day.

Come on people - wake up and see where we are heading. Think hard about the tools you use and how you use them. Think about a way you can use them for good productive benefit, rather than as a goofy toy. Are we that affluent and self-centered or have we just given up on the thought of contributing something really useful to this world?

Think of what you could have been doing for six hours instead of playing Call of Duty, or MSN or Facebook. As a matter of fact, I think I better cut this blog short and get off my own butt and do something!

Next time your Blackberry or iPhone buzzes and you reach to pick it up, think of the shovel.