Sunday, April 4, 2010
The Apple iPad
This weekend was a big weekend for technology. The Apple iPad was released. It is a new tablet computer. It basically looks like an iPhone on steroids. My question is there a point when there is just to much technology. It seems like people rely more and more and technology so they can live everyday. To me people become less creative in some ways on how to entertain themselves when there is so much technology. One can easily get lost sitting in front of their computer aimlessly looking and junk on the internet. Dont get me wrong, I think the iPad is totally cool but I wonder if there is a point when there is just to much technology in our everyday lives.
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But that's where our culture is going. Whether we like it or not, we will continue to get more and more dependent on technology. Look at how technology has permeated our world as it is: we have electric toothbrushes to brush our teeth, we are able to shop online instead of getting off of our asses to go shopping in the "real world", we have watches that display the numbers instead of figuring out the time in our heads based on the hands of the clock, and we have video games with which you can play guitar without actually knowing how to play the instrument. We have already become so reliant on fancy technology that we are able to do things with increasing ease and decreating mental work. It is not whether or not there is too much, it is whether we allow ourselves to become overly immersed in the brainless ease that is technology. Even if we do (I love Amazon and I use a digital watch), it matters whether or not we are okay with relying on technology to do the work for us.
ReplyDeleteI think that there is a point where new technology is really just superfluous. Technology that has a purpose or that advances something important, like modern medicine, is the kind of technological advances that I like to see. The cell phone was a monumental invention! But I do think that there should be a line, because now it seems like we are all so dependent on technology that we are becoming a mindless population of consumers. Back in the day, you had to earn the money you bought things with. It wasn't handed to you by your parents. when I was a kid, I wasn't given money to just go spend however I wanted. We had to do chores and actual work to earn money (we didn't get an allowance). And we certainly didn't have cell phones when I was a kid. We played in the yard or the street. We made mudpies. We had play dates with friends that didnt involve vegging our in front of a video game. When I see people who are so dependent on their cell phones (myself-included; I will actually feel very uncomfortable if I forget my cell phone at home), it makes me wonder what our society is going to end up like someday. I'm actually worried that people will slowly lose their ability to interact and communicate effectively with each other in-person because of how disconnected communication is today (internet, cell phones, etc). On that note, I'm worried about the intelligence level of our country going down, if anything because of the ridiculous "texting" language, and the other various shortcuts we have created for communication. I have teachers who have to remind the class that text-lingo is not acceptable for homework assignments, papers, or discussion board posts. And here I was thinking that that sort of thing was a no-brainer...
ReplyDelete"I'm actually worried that people will slowly lose their ability to interact and communicate effectively with each other in-person because of how disconnected communication is today (internet, cell phones, etc)." You raise a good point. I was in one of my classes the other day and I overheard a girl bitching how some girl called her on her cell and she was saying, "And I was like, 'You could have just texted me that,'" as though a phone call was so awful. First people complained when the telephone became popularized that phone conversations reduced face-to-face interactions, and now texting is taking away verbal conversation. Maybe there's something to that complaint.
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