Too Much Technology?
An old Styx song claimed, “The problem’s plain to see: too much technology. Machines to save our lives, machines de-humanize.” Back then in the 1980’s, there was evidence of perception to make that case. After all, by then an almost an entire generation was being raised by TV.
What about now? There is quite a bit more technology in the new millennium. Do you think Styx was right? Or was that just a panic because technology was expanding so rapidly?
You may be surprised to hear the case of a lifetime IT expert that learned to program in Basic language in grade school in the 1980’s. I later worked with Pascal in high school, Fortran in college, then a little C, Visual Basic, of course HTML and on with the GUI developer and network platforms, mostly by Microsoft.
In fact, I have always been a big proponent of any new technology that helps to improve our lives in some way, whether entertainment, communication, or medical. Machines to save our lives? I have no problem with those, nor do I have an issue with machines that simply make our lives easier, or just more fun.
The problem I see more and more of is that of machines running people’s lives. My niece can’t have a normal social interaction with people anymore. She constantly has to play with her cell phone. She gets together with her friends and they stare at their phones the whole time, vigorously texting and facebooking.
She’s not the only one. Millions of young Americans all over the country can’t function without constantly taking orders from their cell phones. If you watch them walk down the street, many look mentally ill, stopping play with their phone every few seconds.
There are those that can text and walk at the same time without harm, and those that can only pretend. A woman at the mall was caught on camera earlier this year tripping over the wall to the mall fountain while texting. I can guarantee she wasn’t the first, and won’t be the last.
If anyone tells you they haven’t seen someone playing with their phone run into another person or inanimate object in public, they don’t get out much. If they tell you they haven’t heard of anyone causing an accident by texting and driving, they don’t pay attention to the news.
I’m not really an opponent of texting and driving, but the fact is that most people can’t handle that kind of multitasking while doing such an important chore of driving. In fact, many cannot talk on their phone and drive at the same time. Some get so involved in taking orders from their phone that they fail to pay attention to what they’re doing with the thousands of pounds of machinery they’re driving.
In the old days before cell phones, people would simply turn on their car radio, listen to some Styx, or talk with other passengers, and really not many accidents were ever caused by these actions.
Cell phones bring us so much more ease and convenience in life. I have had smart phones for 10 years now and can’t imagine living long without one. When I plan to go somewhere new, I can plug it in on Google Maps, turn on the GPS, and watch my dot arrive at the destination. I can also call for directions if all of that fails, or call for help if my car breaks down.
If your friends are sitting together wondering what to do or where to go that night, I can almost guarantee one or more will whip out a smart phone of some sort and look up movies, restaurants, sports bars, dance clubs, or whatever it is your people like to do. It’s amazing. You don’t even have to get off the couch and go to the computer anymore, much less the yellow pages.
I think technology is incredible. I don’t quite understand why people let it run their lives, but I believe it is mostly the younger generation that was raised solely on technology who allow it to control them. Some of the older people have indeed befallen the same trap, albeit in the name of business.
With all my free time nowadays I like to travel around the country and see some of the more interesting parts. Sometimes I hike deserts or mountains, or other places where my technology doesn’t work real well. I shut it off the machines and enjoy life. It’s kind of hard to do water sports on the beach while you’re taking commands from a cell phone.
The bottom line is that if you know how to put technology in perspective, and turn it off when necessary, it can be wonderful. That way, you’re controlling the machines, not vice versa. If Styx had added “machines that run our lives,” that would have been a more serious omen for the future. Alas, that aspect was covered in various sci-fi movies that began in the 60’s.
The future is here of course, as it always is, and some wonder whether we can survive with young people running into each other while their cell phones control their minds and bodies. We can endure, but the world will certainly become more dangerous in the meantime.
Having been raised by television and computer, many of our youth don’t know how to think for themselves, thus unable to make right decisions concerning their interactions with technology. It’s up to the older and wiser, who they believe to be stupid, to save them.
In the meantime, we’ll have more laws concerning our safety, enacted as a response to young people causing accidents while machines are controlling their minds and therefore their actions. Most if not all of these laws will be indiscriminate and not account for the fact that some of us still know how to use technology safely and even multitask when necessary.
So as we as a society attempt to grow with our rapidly increasing technology, and simultaneously live safely in harmony with the machines, we all must suffer the consequences caused by a growing number of people unable to do so acceptably.
We can get through this, but not just by creating more laws that apply to all and therefore slow down our progress. We also need to teach those end users of technological devices to do so safely, wisely, and in a manner which does not de-humanize us.
