Contrary to the plan, technology has limited our choices. When you check boxes that define your preference in a date–say, Latina, between 24 and 27, loves birds, is a Unitarian, oh, and also should have hazel eyes–you’re narrowing your world quite a bit there. We no longer “happen across” anything; we Google. We don’t flip through TV channels; we look at the cable menu and choose by title–or watch things you’ve chosen in advance, then recorded. Don’t answer the phone without that caller ID. Don’t bother listening to that whole CD–you want to hear that one song you already like. In every corner of this newest of new worlds, very little happens that isn’t planned out. Technology has trumped serendipity.

–‘iBone‘ — by Marshall Sella; GQ Magazine, Oct. 2011
via Urban Suburban