Have you ever given thought to how technology changes lives?
Of course you have! You’ve read about it in publications, learned about it in a class, experienced it through work or chatted about it with your friends or colleagues. Well, let’s chat about it some more and I’ll pose a question at the end that will be sure to get you thinking.
Technology makes us more efficient for the most part, correct? We receive news on-demand whether through RSS feeds, email subscriptions or Twitter (my favorite these days!). If you want information on a particular topic, you Googleit through your PC or mobile device upon request. Trying to get someone’s attention so you can get an answer to your question ASAP? You text them!
My point is that although technology has made our lives more efficient it has certainly made us more dependent (and less intelligent – yeah, I put it out there!). Five years ago I knew people’s phone numbers and now I’m lucky if I can recall a four-digit extension. I know I can reach my best friend with speed dial 2 but couldn’t tell you the number if my life depended on it! Email and websites have the type ahead feature that permits us to “forget” the entire address and still get to the site…faster! We find instant answers to our questions by Googling it. We spend less time learning along the way because we’re in such a hurry to get what we want, i.e. our “on demand” world, we lose focus of the journey.
I’ll admit I like, and am confortable, in my fast-paced, on-demand world. I like that I can find information when I want it. I like that I can access people faster and get problems solved faster so I can keep things moving along and move on to new things. What I didn’t really think about until this morning was how dependent I’ve become on technology for much of my “on-demand world”.
Have I become more efficient and dependent at the same time? Yes, all the examples stated above. Have you?
Are you concerned that we’re losing our abilities for independent comprehensive thoughts? By relying too much on technology, will our multi-dimensional cognitive gift become a past behavior, replaced with theoretical and hypothetical practices?
Filed under: Personal, Professional | Tagged: dependent, efficient, on-demand, technology
Technology is neutral. It’s all up to us whether we use it positively or not.
I totally agree with the “more efficient and dependent at the same time” observation! Some may argue that our cognitive abilities are evolving, and there’s less need for the rote learning. However, without a fundamental understanding of basic principles, a majority of us may soon lose the ability to advance the state of knowledge and reasoning. For example, why should today’s students learn the theory behind calculus, when they can have their computers do integrals and derivatives for them? Of course, we will always have the academic institutions, still advancing the state of numerical science and other technologies.
A loss in understanding the underlying principles of how many things work may be felt by the upcoming generations. For example, will the homeowner of the future understand the basics behind home maintenance, or will they just rely on the best Google answer to help them accomplish a repair? Or, perhaps technology will advance us so much that we need not worry about such things.
As for me, I just hope I don’t misplace my PDA anytime soon, and have to rely on my basic cerebral functions to call friends, remember calendar events, and get to my next destination.
Great thoughts and observations. Here are a few of my thoughts on the current state of affairs in relation to your observations. Laziness & “Me” seem to be the culprits in this efficient but not self-sufficient economy. The push for more in less time can stem from competitiveness. The here and now mentality is a mechanism in the equation of zero patience. Attention spans are shorter, deadlines are shorter…much of this feeds itself. As we work to a more efficient economy & less barriers to entry into business, inevitably we create less profit….speeding up processes gives the ability to get products to market faster (lowering short term operating costs). What I watch most is the race to have it now and fail later. We seem to setup a plan that is not fully thought out. I feel some of it stems from the abandonment of traditional family. The thought was seeded in the 20th century by the traditional family to “make a better life for your kids/offspring” by giving them “what you didn’t have” which ended up equating to more material possessions. The focus is not on core issues that our race faces. Yes America was built from the origin of motivation for opportunity. Most opportunity was sought for the fundamental values of life. The values heavily pressed at those times were the simplest but most basic of human thought….religion, family, & the pursuit of happiness. We have turned much of the focus from all of these things. I would think we now live an ever growing “ME” world. It is no longer for the better of the family it is for the better for “ME”. This has spawned thousands of businesses which focus on niches to cater to these “ME” people. A “great upbringing” is something that seems to be corrugated thought these days. Yes, I agree many people now go to a university of higher learning. But here we are not taught basic fundamentals of life. We do not focus on the life skills that are the most fundamental of all…such as interpersonal communication, proper etiquette, religious values, “in the wild” survival skills, & many other life skills. Pawning a child off to a college and thinking a college/major university will focus on these core values is a common trait that is majorly flawed. A College & University specialize in teaching of deep understanding in a certain discipline that the student selects. In days of past, fathers and mothers spent time teaching their children basic fundamentals of life. They also spent time building their own relationship. The key here is “time”, “building” & “teaching”. We now cut out “time” & so we cut out “teaching” & “building”. Have you ever thought about the cliché statement “if I would have known then what I know now” This simple thought eludes to two separate pieces “time” & “knowledge” Without basic fundaments of love, time, teaching, & building we are building a race that is full of niches but empty of whole. Whole thought & a feeling of whole. The “information age” gives us connectivity that creates the opportunity to learn more information faster….however a filter is needed so that you can sort and prioritize what is most important to you all the while in the format that is most effective for you to retain. We need great leaders that help foster love & teaching. These two traits are most common and strongest in the fundamental traditional family….however with more divorce and later marriages children are now at a larger disadvantage compared to their predecessors. Efficiency and Technology are not the problems of this result… technology and efficiency has increased the speed at which this formula runs… they do not cause the equation to run. In the end, I think with careful thought we are not vulnerable if certain elements of our thought change. With this change of thought we must react and follow out. Some but not all of these thoughts would be…. faster is not always better, adaption is necessary in the evolution of humans, a backup plan only minimizes risk & is no good unless the entire plan is infinitely redundant in every possible communication medium, & language, the concept of “No”, commitment needs barriers to exit, consequences are results of actions, there are building blocks of life skills that everyone needs to build, happiness is not dependent on material possessions, work is not bad and should never end, labor builds your pathway through Life, Life is not a race but a journey, humans are imperfect so you need to learn the best coping skills… these are few from my opinion.