Technology: Is it Killing or Saving Us?
So I went to dinner with my family the other night, and while sitting at our table waiting for our food to be delivered, I started to look around the restaurant, and I noticed something quite sad about our surroundings. Looking around, I saw two to three couples and a few families waiting on their food, but that is not the unfortunate part. What was sad was the cellphones and iPads and all the digital technology accompanying those groups at their tables.Why is this sad? You may ask, well I’ll tell you why. Technology has become such a large part of our lives, and it is a great tool to have because of the many advantages and advances it has created; however, it comes with some disadvantages and setbacks too.
Let’s consider it like this, the smarter the phone, the dumber the user, or the lazier the user. Excuse me if that sounds harsh or if you disagree with me; I am sorry, but have you ever thought about what all you use your phone or any of your devices for? I know I have not, at least not much until now, that is.
After the other night, I started to realize just how much I use my devices daily. Of course, like most everyone else, I have seen the memes warning of technology overuse, and I have the usage tracker set up, but those alerts have not been as impactful as this one.
Seeing the technology being used at the dinner tables the other evening, I took it upon myself to do a sort of self-reflection, and I discovered I used my phone for a total of 39 hours just last week. I hope you can imagine the shock I felt when I saw the charts; if not, let me put this into a better perspective for you. Just today, as I am writing this post, my phone tells me I have been on one of my devices throughout the day on and off so much it added up to a total of 14 hours and 5 minutes of total screen time. That’s just in one day!
On the other hand, I am a student and a graphic design student at that, so my entire career will be on the computer, or will it? If we revisit my previous statement of the smarter the phone, the dumber the user thinking that now it may have been a little harsh, and not just because I have proven to be a strong technology user, that’s not the reason.
Because the technology users are not dumb, they are just being tricked into thinking they are stupid or incapable by the very technology they are using.
For instance, there are many talented people in my art classes both on and off the computer. Still, most of them, myself included, feel more comfortable using the computer instead of paper and pencil because we can hide our mistakes better we can hide behind the screens.
The same goes for the people on their phones in restaurants; they can hide behind their phones to save themselves from having real-life face-to-face interactions with other people. (Not saying that was their goal, but it could have been.) What is the reason, though?
Why have we suddenly become so scared to talk to each other, actually sit down and have a conversation? Or do the thing (only if it is safe) that we see on tv that we have wanted to do, or draw the picture we have had in our heads for what feels like years because we can’t work up the courage to put the pen to the page and do it!
Why have we become so scared to live the lives we are meant to live? Why do we hide behind the screens as if they could somehow protect us from the real world? Why are we allowing a thing we created to tell us how to live our lives?
Why are we giving technology our power? Sadly I don’t know the answer, but I hope one day we will; for now, I shall leave you with this from my ramble.
What is technology really doing? Is it killing art, killing people? Or will they kill it?