Some Issues With Technology

I have a computer, a book reader, an iPod, a television and a telephone. I also have a refrigerator, a furnace, a stove and lights on in my house. You probably have all those things (and more) as well. Are they useful? Yes. Can they be a problem? Yes, especially the more modern gadgets—at least for me. Here is my issue:

Technology is pervasive and intrusive. It always connects and disconnects. It connects people to something outside of their immediate world and disconnects them from people and concerns around them. And it seems some people are always connected or plugged in. They are never ‘off.’ How many times do you find yourself engaged with someone and suddenly are put on hold because the cell phone rings and the new message supplants you. Technology is supplied to almost everyone; morality, good manners or common sense isn’t.

Psychologists and teachers tell us that the ‘electronically connected’ are increasingly having a difficult time in holding a focus—seeing something all the way through. As a trade-off they may now better manage the multi-strands in their personal lives but lose depth and quality with their relationships. How often do you find yourself in a group of young people and ‘hand held’ devices are holding them mesmerized? They are in another world. They can text but they cannot talk—or at least they cannot carry on an intelligent conversation with any depth. Sound-byte assertions and partial sentences from so many of our young seem to be the norm.

These things are taking over our lives. More and more people are living a ‘virtual life.’ I have asked myself, in my own lifetime what were some of the technological marvels, the novelty of the new that drew some of us in? How about small transistor radios; stereos and speakers; cassette tape recorders, 8-tracks and VCR’s; Walkmans and mini-disc recorders; cameras—Polaroid, video and digital; video games, Game Boys and Nintendos; personal computers, laptops, tablets, pda’s; cellular phones, smart phones; etc., etc. Some of these devices had and continue to have legitimate business or educational value and utility, but all of them seem to compel the attention and draw us away from living people and real-time issues or opportunities. They all take time.

What are we giving up? We are giving up intimacy. We are giving up a connection with nature. We are giving up the present. We may be giving up freedom as we become tied to or even addicted to the latest toy and many are even beginning to live a ‘virtual life,’ a Facebook life. Some are even giving up their marriages; their virtual affairs have supplanted a healthy real life.

I recently listened to an interview with Jason B. Ohler who wrote a book titled ‘Digital Community, Digital Citizen.’ He observed, “We’re at a technology party now and are going bananas.”

So, we are now living an option-based life because of electronic technology and it is becoming normalized. It can be good, but too often it isn’t; it is taking a toll. We need to question the degree to which we submit to technology—are we using it too uncritically? Is it a tool or is it becoming a master? As I look around it appears to me that it is becoming a master for many—especially the young.