Who/Where Would we be Without Technology? Approaching Technological Advancements [cautiously]

Today, it seems as though more and more aspects of our lives have become increasingly reliant on advancements in technology.  While humankind relies on advancements to consistently improve our quality of life, technology also provides us with a crutch on which we have become frighteningly dependent. I think it is important to know how to utilize the technology we have developed. If we can set boundaries and realize that technology exists as an aid to us and not as a crutch, following the trend of converting to “digital” may not be a bad thing. In my opinion, we have the tendency to rely on technology too much to the point that we are losing our basic life skills.

It is undeniable that technology has improved the quality of lives and made things simpler and more convenient. Maps, traditionally large and hard to navigate, have been converted so that directions can fit in the palm of your hand. While we used to have to do our research for class using the reference books in the library, today, we can simply enter some key words into the search bar on Google and have access to more resources that perhaps the library can provide. Calendars that used to hang in every kitchen have been taken down in favor of the more easily accessible ones that come with the typical cell phone. There seems to be some gadget to solve any problem or some app to make some task easier. The problem with converting everything digitally is that too much of our daily tasks rely on our computers and phones. Suddenly, if we lose our phones or do not have access to a computer, it becomes the end of the world.  This is similar to what Small and Vorgan write about in their essay “Meet your iBrain: How the Technologies that have become Part of our Daily Lives are Changing the Way we Think” that our lifestyle has actually become fragile and easily disturbed because of the amount of value and trust we place on our electronics. I like the hypothetical situation they wrote about the individual who has his entire life and schedule in his Blackberry scoffing at the woman with an old fashioned daily planner. Most people would expect the man with the Blackberry to be better prepared living in this “computer age” and consider the lady with the planner to be hindered because she doesn’t have a Blackberry but the situation is flipped. The man drops his Blackberry and his laptop and everything he has stored into those devices is lost while the woman with the planner gets in a cab unaffected.

Something else we must take into consideration concerning future progress in technology is to not overstep our boundaries. According to Small and Vorgan, “the current explosion of digital technology not only is changing the way we live and communicate but also is rapidly and profoundly altering out brains” (Small and Vorgan). Most people know that technology changes our behavior and the way we act but not many know that our daily interaction with evolving technology has been literally rewiring our brains so that we think differently now as well. It is a scary thought that technology may soon define who we are as people. It is easy to observe the effects of internet on the way we think. Most likely than not, our attention spans have significantly decreased since before the implementation of the internet. We used to have to be able to focus in order to read through a research book but today, we have become accustomed to quickly skimming through material and jumping from link to link on the internet. “Research that once required days in the stacks or periodical rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes” (Carr). We have become so used to having quick access to information that we can no longer focus for long periods of time even when it is necessary. In addition to having a shorter attention span, we are also beginning to lose our ability to think critically after reading texts. We are “losing deep thought”. Because we are able to see so many opinions of others on a specific topic, we let it influence our own and thus we lose our own personal opinions. We also don’t have to think as hard to write responses/essays because it is easy to search existing works on the same topic.  

Lastly, technology has provided us with an outlet in which we can do daily tasks easier. We begin to lose the ability to perform these tasks naturally. Face to face conversations become difficult and “awkward” because much of daily interaction now takes place through the phone or through text messages. “As the brain evolves and shifts its focus toward new technological skills, it drifts away from fundamental social skills, such as reading facial expressions during conversation or grasping the emotional context of a subtle gesture” (Small and Vorgan). We are essentially becoming computer-like: no emotional response.

In conclusion, technology can be a useful tool aiding us to accomplish daily tasks more efficiently leaving us with more time to do constructive things but we must be careful about jumping too quickly into the digital realm. Technology is expanding too quickly causing us to become increasingly dependent on it to the point in which it is physically altering our brains and the way we think. We should embrace technological advancements but proceed with caution, know the boundaries, and “maintain our people skills and our humanity” (Small and Vorgan).