Is technology dominating our lives?

[EcstaticObsessive]

Just something I've noticed over the past couple of years, humans are becoming more and more reliant on technology. For example, several days ago my home phone died on me. I had to go up the road to use a phone booth to call Telecom, where I was promptly greeted by a pre-recorded message bot. I was put on hold for an hour, although I pretty much got sick of waiting and hung up ten minutes. I had no phone, and no internet for almost a week.

I've noticed both myself and my friends relying on technology more and more. I communicate using Facebook,. I complete homework online. We often work on computers in class. And when that technology fails, we're left with nothing to do. Compared to a few years ago, where work was done with pen and paper, technology can sometimes be more of an obstacle than anything else.

I'm not saying for one second that technology is bad. What with me spending nearly all my time around it, I can admit I would be a bit lost without my laptop or iPod. It can just be such an obstacle sometimes, and I want to hear some other opinions.

So, what do you think Escapist? Is technology taking over our lives?

 

[TimeLord]

Yep, it is. But I love technology,.

*goes back to posting on the Escapist using iPad, listening to music on iPhone and playing my 360*

My life could only be more technologically itergrated if I was in a VR machine.

 

[Lilani]

Well of course it is, isn't that the point of developing it so much? So we can use it in even more ways that make certain tasks easier?

How much you use the technology available to you is entirely up to you...for now. But after a while, just as they have been in the last two decades, technology will creep more and more into our lives, becoming less of a choice and more of a necessity.

Saying it's "taking over" is sort of silly, that makes it sound like a disease or something. Do you actually think we'd be better off 30 years ago when cell phones weighed a good 10 to 15 pounds and email was the stuff of dreams? Not to mention all of the medical technology we have now.

 

[A.A.K]

It is...and i really don't like it.
I appreciate that I can type 4 times faster than I can write but that's about all it's good for in my opinion. Though my opinion doesn't really count, all I do with my life is martial arts and the girlfriend. Technology never really makes a show stopping appearance.

 

[Erana]

For me to truely ponder technology is to have my mind blown. I mean, we have surrounded ourselves with a world of our creation, with everything being from the human mind tailored to the way our thoughts function.

It would be the most wonderful thing ever if it was designed for progress and art, but sadly, its all capitalism, and I can't help but feel being constantly exploited.

Still, for all we have designed for ourselves, we, as human beings have been designed for the Earth, and cannot neglect enjoying the beauty of nature without detriment to ourselves.

 

[Jonluw]

Back in the olden days, if your spear broke you would have no chance at bringing down that mammoth. If you had no farming equipment in the 1300s you would have to beg on the streets...
Technology has always dominated how we live.
With more advanced technology comes more accidents, flaws and nuisances, but in the end it works most of the time and when it works it serves to make our day that much easier.
I doubt you ever stop to think about all the technology that goes into every second of your daily life.

Pen and paper is technology. As is the postal services. The reason you think of these as "better" is that they are more reliable than new technology like the internet. This, however stems from the fact that the internet is still in its infancy. There's nothing wrong with the technology, rather the problem is that you live in an age where we are inventing a lot of new tecnology and it hasn't had the time to become foolproof yet.
You just wait, in a few years people will be complaining about how their telepathy brain-implants are sooo unreliable, and be yearning for the simpler days of the good old reliable android phones.

 

[Hoplon]

Just something I've noticed over the past couple of years, humans are becoming more and more reliant on technology. For example, several days ago my home phone died on me. I had to go up the road to use a phone booth to call Telecom, where I was promptly greeted by a pre-recorded message bot. I was put on hold for an hour, although I pretty much got sick of waiting and hung up ten minutes. I had no phone, and no internet for almost a week.

I've noticed both myself and my friends relying on technology more and more. I communicate using Facebook,. I complete homework online. We often work on computers in class. And when that technology fails, we're left with nothing to do. Compared to a few years ago, where work was done with pen and paper, technology can sometimes be more of an obstacle than anything else.

I'm not saying for one second that technology is bad. What with me spending nearly all my time around it, I can admit I would be a bit lost without my laptop or iPod. It can just be such an obstacle sometimes, and I want to hear some other opinions.

So, what do you think Escapist? Is technology taking over our lives?

There is a hypothesis that suggests that we are what we are because of technology, from a simple animal hide sling to carry an infant to the digital computer, out evolution could well depend on technology going forward as it has in the past.

True? I don't know, but it is a hell of an interesting idea to me at least.

 

[EcstaticObsessive]

Well of course it is, isn't that the point of developing it so much? So we can use it in even more ways that make certain tasks easier?

How much you use the technology available to you is entirely up to you...for now. But after a while, just as they have been in the last two decades, technology will creep more and more into our lives, becoming less of a choice and more of a necessity.

Saying it's "taking over" is sort of silly, that makes it sound like a disease or something. Do you actually think we'd be better off 30 years ago when cell phones weighed a good 10 to 15 pounds and email was the stuff of dreams? Not to mention all of the medical technology we have now.

Sometimes it seems like technology is just going backwards. Remember the days when all you had to do to fix a game was blow into the game cartridge? Yeah, me neither.

And fair enough, technology helps in so many ways. I mean, I can't remember the days when I didn't spend a majority of my time on the internet. In a way, my life is the internet (foreveralone.jpg) as I can talk to my friends on here, talk to complete strangers, pretty much do whatever I want.

 

[Nomad Warrior]

Well considering my Nokia E72 replaced my netbook and PDA, my biggest question now is which brand of technology will dominate our lives? With all the major players on the field, who will eventually take over as dominate corporate entity? As all major corporations are now labelling small players as their own who, will in the distant future, take over all competition and name themselves enterprise of the millennium?

 

[Thaluikhain]

Eh...try living without fire. We have become utterly dependant on fire. And don't get me started on cutting implements or the lever.

 

[Jonluw]

Sometimes it seems like technology is just going backwards. Remember the days when all you had to do to fix a game was blow into the game cartridge? Yeah, me neither.

Neither can I.
Oh, wait, you mean the time when you had to blow in game cartridges to remove the dust that accumulated in them in order to play?

Yeah, those games weren't broken. They just had a design flaw that we now have eliminated.
When those "good old" games were actually broken, there was nothing you could do, aside from getting a new one.

Today, when a disc is scratched, you can actually get it rebuffed and repaired. Of course, if you break the game in two, there's still nothing you can do about it.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Knowledge and technology is the only real thing separating us from cavemen, if they knew then what we know now they would have the same society, only less crowded

So yeah it's been an integral part of our lives for a long time and rightly so, it is the only way we can push intellectual evolution, because waiting for the natural one just takes too fucking long.
And yes all the advantages come with a bag of disadvantages, but that is what we need to work on and push things forward.

 

[EcstaticObsessive]

Been browsing the internets, found an old, slightly related article on Cracked.

http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-6-most-ominous-trends-in-video-games/

Thanks for the contributions guys, it's really fascinating to get some other opinions!

 

[The Epicosity]

Yep, notice what you are using to post.

 

[MagicMouse]

Yes.

Within 2 feet of me are 5 screens all feeding me information and media.

And I fucking love it.

 

[EcstaticObsessive]

Sometimes it seems like technology is just going backwards. Remember the days when all you had to do to fix a game was blow into the game cartridge? Yeah, me neither.

Neither can I.
Oh, wait, you mean the time when you had to blow in game cartridges to remove the dust that accumulated in them in order to play?

Yeah, those games weren't broken. They just had a design flaw that we now have eliminated.
When those "good old" games were actually broken, there was nothing you could do, aside from getting a new one.

Today, when a disc is scratched, you can actually get it rebuffed and repaired. Of course, if you break the game in two, there's still nothing you can do about it.

Oho, touché sir. Perhaps I didn't phrase that right. Just back in those days, if something was broken or failed to work due to a design flaw, it was a lot simpler to fix. I remember my dad fixing our old VCR one day all by himself, a few blue moons ago.

Nowadays, since our technology is that much more advanced, it's a lot more complicated to get it fixed, or repaired. Like you said, you can get disks rebuffed, but compared to 'the old days' (forgive me for using that term rather loosely) in some cases, just getting things repaired is an inconvenience.

 

[EcstaticObsessive]

Yep, notice what you are using to post.

... You clever bastard.

Like I said, I don't think technology is bad, I love it as much as the next socially awkward geek. And I will admit, me posting this here is a lovely case of irony. I'm just curious, with our lives slowly being absorbed by all this new tech, do you think it'll be a good thing, in the end?

 

[BonsaiK]

Is technology taking over our lives?

Yes. Every household seems to have books, radio, running water, twist-top bottles, refrigerators and some of them even have stoves. Plus all you have to do these days to get electricity is flip a switch. A lot of people have cars and bicycles, too. Clearly our lives have been taken over by technology.

 

[Liviola]

Recently it's certainly changed the way we behave socially. I just had dinner with some old friends, but 3/4 of the time, everyone had their iPhones/Androids out staring at them, status updating, checking in, messaging others.

Even the bulk of the conversation between them was about what phone is best, how much their plans are, what mindless app fad they're currently into, who's posting what on FB. I guess it's more up to an individual's sense of social ettiquite whether to take your phone out at a dinner table but it does seem like 10 years ago, these same people would be concentrating on each other and appreciating the people in front of them when they meet.