Just to continue the technology discussion...
Top Ten reasons why technology makes our lives easier.
10) Cell phones have become smaller and smaller so that you can keep them anywhere and also lose them anywhere.
9) Cell phones also have special features now, like silent vibration and text messaging, that make it possible for any one of your aquaintances to track you down anywhere, anytime, if there's an emergency or if there's not.
8) Cars make it possible to get to farther places faster than our pioneer ancestors, so that we can get jobs in big cities and have homes in the suburbs, because the commute is only an hour and a half, and with eight to ten hours at work, that leaves approximately a half-hour of waking time actually at home with our families.
7) Television creates an opportunity for the entertainment geniuses of our time to do their stuff, and we have the opportunity to watch it five hours a day, seven days a week, time during which, if you use it to practice the piano or acting or tai kwon do, you could develop some pretty phenomenal entertaining abilities yourself.
6) Farming has now become industrial, and so a much bigger number of people can be supported by a much smaller number of farmers who employ techniques such as pest-spraying, unseasonal harvesting, and chemical preserving in order to actually be able to have the time to grow enough food to support such a large number of people.
5) The internet has made it possible to find any piece of information, anywhere, and it's so easy, even young children can use it; and do, every day.
4) With calculators, math is so much quicker and easier; in fact, they make it so quick, and so easy, that there are times when I've forgotten how to do long division.
3) With a credit card, it is much easier to go shopping, because you don't have to carry all this confusing cash around, and also you can buy all the groceries you want even at the end of the month.
2) With a digital camera, you can take hundreds of beautiful pictures of everything of importance in life and the colors and image are so true to life that you hardly even feel left out seeing all of this through the camera lens.
1) A computer is an amazing thing. Life is so much more organized, quick, and efficient, you can get so much done with a computer, it's even worth the hours each day of time spent figuring out how to make it work right.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
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To me, "easier" may have multiple orientations.
ReplyDeleteThese technological marvels have effects, and especially for those born into them, in various ways:
They alter (redefine?) fundamental aspects of our sense of reality. In what ways is our new reality easier?
They alter (redefine?) our inter-personal associations, our socialities (more than our intra-personal structures?). Are these easier? (I am finding the expectation to be cell-phone available at all times in all places a violation of my cherished need for solitude. But then, I am old school on this, as merrilykaroly might tell me.)
With that said, perhaps they really don't change things very much in the most fundamental ways? When I read Tolstoy's Anna Karinina I was struck by how much insight the author had into curren human nature, and yet the book was written over a century ago in a different culture and language. Even more to the point, the scriptures speak to us today.
So maybe from this vantage point, things are not so different and not easier.
This is meant in no way to challenge your notion of technology making things easier, but to understand it for myself.
Thanks for this post.
Yes... I must admit I resorted to a bit of sarcasm in this list. I also find it ridiculuous that I should be expected to be avaiable 24/7. I don't have a cell phone ;)
ReplyDeleteThose things we use (and pay for), we continue to develop their technology. Those we don't, the technology dies. Is it the technology that is the problem, or is it us?
ReplyDeleteI think I want to read Anna Karinina.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I have a cell phone, and I hardly ever answer it and that is annoying to people. I always think, "well, in the olden days people didn't have cell phones and they still survived so why should I have to answer mine all the time?" but then I remember that in an emergency, people will call my cell phone to get a hold of me because I don't have any other kind of phone.
In the olden days people would call you on your home phone, or if they couldn't get a hold of you that way, they'd send you a telegraph or if they couldn't get a hold of you that way they'd send a letter or drive a car or ride a train or a horse or send a messenger to come find you or send a smoke signal. But calling me on a cell phone would probably be a little quicker. So maybe I should answer mine. Or at least check my email.
Not only is it more convenient to use some of these modern technologies-- sometimes it's actually the necessary way to do things in our society. So many job applications are now only online-- they'll tell you that if you go to the actual store to apply. And they expect you to have a cell phone handy to answer when they call to tell you if you got the job. More and more these technologies are becoming your only choice if you want to interact with society...
lol. I love the image of smoke signals. I think it is us, Dad. I think it's probably good to realize that all of this equates to a complete lifestyle change, not just a little more convenience... the smoke signals were slower but you could live a much more solitary life. Nowadays, that's nigh on impossible. Also sheltering your kids is becoming far less possible than it used to be.
ReplyDeletePerhaps society is more aware of everything now, both good and bad. Email/blogs can be a good thing, it has us talking to each other and expressing ideas. I guess that could be good or bad too.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in college, I remember when I would want to take a nap, I would tell my roommates that if someone calls me, don't wake me up no matter what, unless it is my parents, and in that case it would be an emergency. I only talked to my parents maybe, one time a semester, and usually only about money. And the only one of my siblings I ever talked to or saw was Ron on a very occasional basis. I remember never ever talking to my siblings once they went off to college and I was left at home. Because long distance was expensive (I guess).
These days, I can talk or email my children every single day and see how they are doing, or if I just want to talk. I guess that can be both good or bad (for them!).