What about that Technology??
In a world where technology has now, willingly or not, taken over part/most of our daily lives, we may sometimes get that deep instinct of rebellion; Go back un-industrialised. For some it may last a few minutes or a few hours, for others, well somewhat longer. You will find a number of stories of people who shed technology or even went further on as disassociating themselves from urban life. I am not talking of permaculture or any similar form but living without what we may call comforts.
My point here is the argument whether we should fight or embrace it? You might say, “bit rich coming from you, working in IT, your own site, blog n all”. Well yes, but I’d love to discuss both sides of the coin.
If you actually have a look at how technology is integrated in our lives, just have a look around you. Put aside the obvious, mobiles, tables, laptops etc. We’ve got kitchen appliances full of sensors and touch buttons etc. Refrigeration that determine the age of your food and notify us when some is out of date or expired. Smart TVs and full blown sound systems, automated air conditioning and heating systems. What else…smart lighting, automated irrigation, hell even my watch has a processor that keeps a log of the trekking altitudes and sea depth I did, along with temperatures and storm detection. What I’m saying is that today everything has a microchip with a processor and some memory that can do basic controls. Like everything they all come with a price tag… BUT the good thing is that most of these items are now affordable for the average Joe. I am going to tackle the industrial and medicinal technological advances as that will bore even more the handful of people reading this. In the words of Agent Smith in The Matrix…”It’s Inevitable”
On the other hand it has become almost impossible to zone out of technology. I just read an article that even if you specifically switch off the location tracking services from your phone, Google (yep got an Google phone) still tracks your phone’s location. Take a selfie, photo or post and there is your data logged, bum. It starts to get annoying as you start losing the control factor. I mean, don’t get me wrong I believe we are still far away from Isaac Asimov’s I Robot book but potentially getting closer to that scenario. Wouldn’t it be nice that you can simply say, look today no social media and no internet. Most of you will say “pff that’s no Biggie!” And I know you will manage it if you want to challenge me, but just try it out in the middle of your normal routine, say next Saturday. Keep all your normal appointments and routine and just ditch your phone and other tech.
Taking another stance, it is entirely our ‘fault’ that we use technology in the way we do. If you look at it, most new tech are good to have and little extra features which are better from previous models. I bought a convection oven it has some 16 programs for different variations of food…if want to make a pizza there is program that does it for me. It’s nice but is it really that important, my other oven had a timer and heat knob, I check the cook book and bingo. I am not discussing the heating advancements, energy efficiency and carbon footprint but simply the nice to have features which some of them we’ll use probably use a handful of times. Same thing applies for our smart devices…does it really really really make that much of a difference your new phone with 12megapixel camera over your 8megapixel one, to take those high definition shot selfies, group photos or insta pics? So does the memory difference that loads an app in 0.8 seconds less time before.
We are simply getting too much inpatient and getting picky on stuff which in reality does not add that much value in the newer products we purchase. (Again this does not always apply).
I saw a product that is being promoted as a family socialising agent. Basically this item blocks waves and mobile signal in a particular area. So to help interaction between family members during dinner time you just switch this device on so that people would not look at their phone. Please let’s not let this be a thing in our homes. I believe that we need technology and it helps us in many ways. However I believe that we want to take good care at our tech purchases and really evaluate the need for the newer item. Perhaps the change is not really that revolutionary and the money may be spent on something else or else for a goal in your bucket list. Either way it’s up to us, how we let technology to take control or attempt to take control.