Technology or Reality
I was thinking the other day, as I sometimes do, and was wondering about our use of technology. I am going to be the first to admit that I live on my computer; my phone and I rely on the Internet. I think that they are all good things but I would like to think that I am able to generally find a balance between over using technology and living life in the real world. Some days I get caught up living in a technology bubble – I Tweet, ‘Facestalk’, Google everything and get lost in the big world wide web. Other days though I am swept up by my real life and don’t even glance at a screen. As a common courtesy I don’t play on my phone and talk to someone at the same time, though I do play on my phone while watching television. I don’t web doctor but I do say ‘Google it’ a lot.
Technology seems to be involved in most people’s daily lives now and it is becoming even more invasive with the introduction of things like the Google glasses. (If you are living under a rock and haven’t heard of these check it out here). To me this is like having a smart phone strapped to your head instead of your hand as most people already do. You see people at events and instead of watching it directly they are holding up their camera phone and watching it through the screen. Why be there live if you are going to do this? Or worse still they are too busy staring down at their phone to even see what is happening in the real world around them.
You walk down the street and everyone with a spare moment is doing something on their phone. They might be waiting for a train/bus/taxi, ‘watching’ their kids at the park, in line at the post office, grocery shopping, ‘relaxing’ at the beach, having a coffee, pretending to read a book. No one it seems can do anything without sharing it with the world. Taking photos of the coffee they just ordered, Tweeting about the person on the train near you, checking in on Facebook, texting your partner about something that happened in the last hour since you saw them, looking at today’s weather because while the sky is blue it might be lying, checking how many likes you got on your Facebook check in, watching the last episode of some reality TV show you missed, giggling at some YouTube clip, stopping everyone from eating their lunch because you just have to Instagram it, trying to beat the next Candy Crush level, getting bored and flicking back to Angry Birds, Tweeting your success on finishing that level, snoozing a reminder, Pinning something you will never actually get back to using, texting someone back instead of answering their call, ordering groceries to pick up later on, e-carding your best friend for their birthday, bidding on Ebay …
Most people seem to be able to strike a healthy balance between technology and reality but I think the balance is starting to tip towards technology. At what point will we all become like the characters on Wall-E, stuck sitting in a chair all day, staring at the world through computers? I think that technology is good and we are making great advances with it but when will the bubble burst. Will we reach a critical point where we will reject technology and go back to our roots and living naturally? Will it be a voluntary rejection or will technology become better than us and in order to survive we will have to ‘kill’ it. We have seen it happen before with the Egyptians and with the Romans. They had developed knowledge and skills far greater than anyone had ever known, building great structures like the Pyramids or The Pantheon. Then all of a sudden for no explainable reason it all collapsed and civilization went backwards and started from scratch again. Is this where we are headed?
No, I’m not going to stop using technology, and yes I let my daughter use technology for games and photos and movies - but I am mindful of relying on it too much. I try and remember to switch off and engage the real world. I’m just one person and I am not going to change the fate of the human civilisation but I do wonder where my great-great grandchildren will be and what they will be doing.
