Ulysses takes pause over certain technological enthusiasms:
I like certain aspects of technology, but the overarching trend in our society is to turn technology into some sort of idol, with legions of rabid fans for every brand and model of device. When arguing about, or waiting in line for the latest gadget takes up a significant amount of your time, then it's a problem like any other addiction. I'm thinking particularly about smart-phones that have such vast capabilities yet are mostly used to kill time on-line or gossiping.
Man went to the Moon with so much less, I wonder if we have not reached a crisis of vision; there must be better uses of our advances than launching cartoon birds at a pile of blocks or tweeting the minutiae of our lives to strangers.
This type of technology doesn't actually help us much; rather it has been proven to degrade our mental faculties. Studies have shown that the average adult today has a poorer memory and ability to focus due to the deferring of certain mental functions to technology.
I would rather spend the time others while away on smart-phones travelling and meeting real people. Needless to say I don't own a smart-phone. I'd rather be the smart one in this relationship. Like seven billion other people I am in possession of the most complex known structure in the Universe and the most powerful organic computer in the shape of the human brain and i'm not prepared to be usurped by a disposable lump of metal and plastic.
I am always amazed, and appalled, when I go to the gym and watch people, a LOT of them, hauling their phones around, doing a set, then texting or checking for messages for 5 minutes, do another set, repeat, etc. That, or spend more time sitting on a machine, phone in hand, texting away, all the while plugged into headphones. It's like they cannot be "unconnected" from the cyber world for even a few minutes. Same thing everywhere you go. At a coffee shop, 3 people, presumably friends, sharing a table, lattes at the ready, and each immersed in his/her glazed-eyed texting to someone somewhere else or web surfing or doing an email reply . . .
Do not get it, never will.
Posted by: Doug | December 18, 2012 at 07:03 PM