When I was a
child growing up my parents were not really interested in technology, before I
was ten year old our remote was whoever was closest to the telly switched one
of the three channels, yes we only had the three channels on a TV you would
class as tablet size and weigh the same as my dad. But even here we would watch
tomorrow’s world and we would hear this will make your life easier etc. you see
the pattern, now I have more technology in my mobile phone than what landed men
on the moon, yet I have no time available to scratch my butt. My life is taken
up with constant demands that although technology makes easier, 20-30 years ago
I did not care or need them and still we managed fine, or did we.
Everything
these days is so much faster, instant communications, worldwide, I can still
remember making calls to Australia when you would say something and then pause
for 10 seconds while you wait for the reply to start, and those 10 seconds felt
like a minute and a half. Now we can Skype around the world and not only have
minimal delay but see the person we are talking too like they were in the next
room. So is this a good thing, we almost
hear and see news stories as they happen live around the world, is this making
us demand more, now with social networking we are getting more, news feeds not
only come from the major media giants but from everyone, you could be making
the news.
So is this a
good thing? Markets in the UK crash because a banker in Germany inadvertently
updates twitter with, I think I will sell a couple of euro’s today, and his 2
million followers in banks all round the world start moving euros, all of a
sudden you have a major issue. So again I ask is this a good thing? Should we
not be focusing our efforts on our local markets and then perhaps we would not
be in such a volatile market where the butterfly effect really does work. Maybe
this is why the world is in such a financial mess at the minute, I don’t know
just a guess… but hey do you really know?
So back to
the main point, technology is supposed to make my life easier but I find it is
just adding more things to be done. We can prove this and a friend of mine has
noticed this happening recently, if we get a new device to take over a task
work out how much time this should save you, then do nothing during this time
except enjoy the extra time from the technology, how long before the time is
lost, I reckon a couple of weeks maximum, and then you will wonder what stole
the time, I bet you it was demands from more technology.
So
technology helps us achieve so much more, it makes us more creative, and it
brings information to the masses with ease, but is it making us focus on too
much and making us forget what is important, family, friends, face to face
contact, simple one on one communication? Due to technology I am meeting more
people who do not know how to communicate face to face, give them a keyboard or
mobile phone and hey the can talk for hours, days or weeks, but put them in a
room one on one with another human and they have nothing to say, or don’t know
how to interact. Is this our future a generation of people providing more
information quicker and cleverer yet impersonal cold and without any personal
context?
So
technology gives me knowledge at my fingertips, it allows me to work faster,
more accurately and with more integrity, but in return it makes me do more, and
absorbs more of my time, it also makes me work in places I never used to work,
or would dream of working, I can now work in the loo if I want too, and yes I
have sat on the pan and replied to a work e-mail, let’s be honest due to the
technology they are none the wiser that’s where I was. So all the buzz around
new technology being better for us is a lie, maybe we should stop worrying
about what is happening on the other side of the planet and start making home a
better place to be.
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