When I awoke this morning I was wondering just what I wanted to blog about today. It hit me right in the face as I walked into my sisters kitchen. First off when I came down the stairs my nephew was in his father’s office on the computer playing games. When I got to the kitchen everyone else was sitting at the table either looking at computers or cellphones. Technology, what did we do before the days of checking our emails or looking up things to do or buy. The question now becomes can we as a society live without our computers, laptops, tablets or cellphones? What would it be like to wake up in the morning and sit at the table and have a conversation without any electronic noise in the background (including television)? Have we as a society lost the art of conversation? Honestly picture one day without anything electronic, battery run or otherwise, could you do it?
You see minus the computer you would not be reading my blog right now. Bad thing for me as a blogger. I find myself as guilty of doing the above as everyone else. I constantly am checking my email, doing research for my book and shopping online. Remember when research involved actually going to a library and finding books? Think of all the time saved by actually just typing in a few words in search and having the information you want delivered to you in a split second.
Think of the app Facebook, before that we actually had to use a phone and call people to find out what they have been up to. Think of all the people you grew up with before Facebook, you probably kept in touch with very few of them. Facebook has brought so many people together, I know for me personally it has been huge in me being able to keep up with my friends, especially since moving to California ten years ago. But there are also things about it I hate, one of those things is I find out things from my family on Facebook instead of through a phone call or letter. Another thing is people who have to post every aspect of there lives (you all probably have a friend or two like that), I am talking about the ones who post everything from their morning cup of coffee to their flossing their teeth at night, seriously, too much information.
I myself love the app YouTube. Whenever something goes wrong in my house that I need to fix, I seem to always be able to find a YouTube video that shows me how to fix it. I love that I can share a video with all my family and friends of holiday decorations that I have spent a lot of time on that I know they would never get to see otherwise. Really, I don’t find I have a hate for this app.
Computers have taken us so far but are we really better off for it? People who post things like how to build a bomb in your own home or people who prey on children, these are things that have made computers a danger to society. We can now watch our homes from our cellphones and tablets, these are things that have made things better for society.
Technology and computers really have their pluses and minuses. On one hand you have to love it, on another you have to hate it. We all know you cannot stop change from happening and if we are not willing to change we are left behind. What happens to our world when technology has gone to far? Would you know how to survive in a world minus all power?
Technology has indeed made our lives a lot easier. It has improved a lot of the world. It has harmed a lot of the world. Our homes are full of things from technology, we have gadgets right and left, we have our computers, tablets and cellphones. We have ways of keeping our food fresh. We have air conditioners to keep us comfortable, the list goes on and on. Everyday of our lives are filled with it.
The art of conversation is my biggest worry when it comes to our modern ways. I know we can communicate with our computers, etc, but can we still hold a real conversation with a real person face to face. Can we go to a restaurant without hearing someone else’s phone conversations? Do people even realize that they are speaking into their phones so loudly that everyone knows just what their conversations are about? Have we become immune to all this? I know when I go to a grocery store at least a third of the people are on their cellphones, I find this very distracting and usually end up forgetting things that I went there for. Can we learn moderation of our devices and when it is too much? Are we creating harmful energy waves from so many devices running all around us? There are just so many questions I can raise on this subject.
I really do have a point to this conversation and that is for us to become conscious of our uses of our devices, to become conscious how much we interact with our fellow-man on a one to one basis, to realize everyone does not want to hear your phone conversation or your kids games when they are at a restaurant trying to eat and spend quality time with the person they are there with. You see there is a time and place for all these things and we just need to realize when that is. Let’s not let ourselves become detached from humanity. Next time you are out and about take a look around and see what I am talking about, do you wish to live your lives attached to a gadget. Technology and computers, love it, hate it.