Author Pico Iyer to discuss the effects of today’s connectivity on society at the Fowler Museum

For many, relationships with phones and laptops can sometimes become excessive and overwhelming. Most feel the bombarding pressure of emails, texts and tweets all piling up and spamming the latest smartphones and laptops. Though it seems as though there is no evident solution to dealing with these problems, one man may have an answer.

Pico Iyer, a world-renowned author of books such as “The Open Road” and “The Man Within My Head,” will discuss the effects the age of connectivity and connective devices such as cellphones and the Internet have on today’s generation with author and journalist Lisa Napoli tonight at the Fowler Museum.

Through examining his own life, Iyer has gradually developed a personal theory about the effect connectivity has had on everyday lives and relationships.

“I have been noticing in my own life that my time seems to be running away from me. The more connection devices there are around me, sometimes it seems the less connected I am on the rest of the world,” Iyer said. “So there’s this sense of being on an accelerated roller coaster that I think many people never exactly asked to get on but now we don’t know how to get off.”

Iyer also said he has a specific concern for the next generation, whom he calls the child of tomorrow.

“In my lifetime I have seen the world accelerate furiously from black-and-white photo to color (television) to MTV and beyond,” Iyer said.

According to Iyer, the child of tomorrow is going to have many more devices than the current generation and will have even more information flooding in on him.

But Iyer said he believes there is hope for future generations to find a balance by occasionally unplugging from agents of connectivity.

“The child of tomorrow may want freedom from these devices. Not all the time, but just a balance because no one wants to uninvent technology, the cellphone or Internet. … All these things have made our lives much better, brighter, longer and more interesting than they use to be,” Iyer said.

Iyer has his own way for finding his balance with technology. Iyer said that he goes off to a monastery in Big Sur every few months for a couple of days where he is free from all email communications, telephones and television sets.

“When I come back (from the monastery), I am so directed, so fired up. I’m just a much nicer, clearer, more patient, and I hope, more compassionate person than when I went,” Iyer said.

Ted Habte-Gabr, producer of Live Talks Los Angeles who is collaborating with the Fowler Museum in this event, said that events like these offer audiences the opportunity to engage in an enlightening conversation with an expert author.

Napoli, author of the book “Radio Shangri-LA: What I learned in Bhutan, the Happiest Kingdom on Earth,” said that she is interested in the study of happiness economics and how to find a balance between work and life without working 100 hours a week and while maintaining relationships outside of work. Napoli also said that she respects Iyer’s work that covers very similar topics and that she is excited to get his input on her ideas.

“I think we can all learn from Pico about how to sort of turn things off. He’s so prolific, he’s so productive and yet he’s always somewhere, he’s always traveling, He’s somebody we could all be inspired by,” Napoli said.