Death by Technology

The following commentary comes from an independent investor or market observer as part of TheStreet's guest contributor program, which is separate from the company's news coverage.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Yes, I'm a bit of a Luddite. For 20 years, I successfully sold the benefits of technology from mainframes, video, voice, data and every networking/transmission option available -- up until I got out of the industry in the mid-'90's.

Since then I have disavowed the paperless era, the culture that made technology our master instead our slave. Not only did I believe that pack of lies, I got others to do so as well.

As a business adviser through Reach Development Services, I note that technology marketers have learned three things drive people (and their companies) to part with gazillions of dollars:

1. Fear: Remember Y2K and the threat of digital Armageddon?
2. Brilliant techno-babble: Geek speak makes you feel so intellectually castrated that you're intimidated into buying
3. Ego: Having the latest and greatest to show off and brag about at cocktail parties and chamber meetings

Sadly, there are three sacred business sacrifices made at the altar of technology: common sense, and customer and culture communion.

Case in point: bombarding me with a barrage of emails from auto-responders and such may seem like constant communication but after more than a week, trust me, it's a nuisance.

And don't twitter your life away with social media unless you've been convinced that you can attract people willing and able to buy your products. Mostly what people are buying is that you're so lonely and idle that you not only have time to track your every move but know it can be enhanced by someone else's idleness.

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Don't get me wrong, no doubt there are some industries, some sectors, and some generations of buyers whose investment of time, gadgetry, and money in social media is worth it -- I just haven't found any. Seriously, can you name one profitable connection that couldn't have been made with the old-fashioned, pick-up-the-phone, direct mail advertising and PR methods?

Technology eats up more time than it's supposed to save. Case in point, tell me you're not so addicted to your little phone that you're not constantly distracted by it -- whether it's beeping, singing or vibrating? And when it's not signaling, you're checking it to see if it's still working.

Your world is productive until the net, hard drive or power crashes, then you're as helpless as can be. In fact the only thing you're capable of doing is complaining to everyone else how frustrated you are with utterances of, "I can't get on, can you?"