Is technology dominating our lives?

[Soviet Steve]

No, I don't feel I use technology in my life at all. Now if you'll excuse me I have to go back to hunting for food with my bare fists while naked, because living without technology is just so bloody awesome.

 

[EcstaticObsessive]

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.

This is the sort of stuff I'm interested, where it becomes just a tad... extreme? I mean, in my classes, it's ridiculous how many kids are texting underneath the desk, sneaking out of class to text, if we're on the computers, the kids will go on Facebook. It's gotten to the point where it's interrupting with their learning.

 

[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.

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.

Indeed, more advanced technology requires more advanced knowledge from a person in order to repair or create said technology.
That you can't do something about though. If you want society to progress, you're going to have to deal with that.

If we take it to te extreme: Back in the day when the only technology we had was fire, sharpened rocks and animal hides, everyone would know how to sharpen a rock and skin an animal (fire can be seen as an exception due to religious superstition, fire might have been the secret of the shaman, etc.)
Society progresses, and we learn to process plants into four and flour into bread. Again, this technology doesn't require much knowledge or specialization in the field. Moving forward, we have now invented metals: Everyone owns a sword or a farming tool, and if it goes blunt, they have a whetstone and the know-how to sharpen their tools. If they straight up break, however, not everyone has a smithy; but some basic smithing was still quite a common skill on larger farms.
Now we've invented the automobile. Everyone has one, and many can fix basic problems like a burnt-out spark plug. Still, the vehicle is so complicated that stranger problems require us to take it to someone with specialized knowledge in the field. Still, gaining some of this knowledge isn't too hard. There are plenty of hobby-mechanics who can fix most of your problems, provided it isn't something really complex.

Then we reach today's world, where a lot of technology, like computers, is so complicated most people don't even know how it works. There is even technology that isn't corporeal, but only exists as numbers within the computers which you still don't know how function. These two technologies require completely different skillsets to work with, even though they funtion in symbiosis; and not many know how to handle and repair these technologies at an advanced level.

If we were to draw the progress to its logical extreme, we would end up in a society where everyone uses ridiculously complex technology and only one person in the world knows how each piece of technology works.
I don't think this will happen though. Mostly due to the fact that education moves forward as well. A teenager fifty years ago would have no idea of how nuclear fusion works, but these days we do.

The problem that really seems to bother you is that the new technology is unreliable. And as I said, that is only owing to the fact that it is new and not fully established yet. When telephones were new, that was incredibly unreliable too, and large parts of the world were without contact to the telephone network. However, now that the technology has become mainstream and we've worked out the kinks, the system is almost foolproof. When was the last time you had problems with your cellphone other than when you dropped it on the ground? The problem is that the internet and mp3-players and such are still relatively early in their development and integration into society. So long as you insist on using infantile technology, you will have to deal with certain kinks. The problem only comes when you use infantile technology for essential tasks without any backup.

 

[instantbenz]

i agree, but i've no problem with it.

i'm waiting for a digital bowel-emptying machine that way i ken plzy mah wowz al le tahm.

I think what subject that tech does the worse for humanity for is language. Call me old fashioned, but know how to spell and know proper grammar... plx

 

[Lilani]

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.

The more complicated the technology, the more complicated it is to fix. Remember the days when all you had to do to get light was to strike a match and light a lamp, and all you had to do to turn it off was snuff it out? Now you need a power source and all sorts of circuits. And if just one part of that circuit is bad, you have to inspect the whole thing. The worst you can get with an oil lamp was maybe a bit of water in the oil. Just change that stuff out and you're good.

Or remember the days when to fix the TV reception, all you had to do was adjust those bunny ears? Maybe add some tinfoil or have somebody stand next to it for a while? Man, those were the days. Sure, there were only a handful channels, no DVR and no HD, but wasn't that so much better?

Also, how much time you spend on the Internet is entirely up to you. Blaming the growth of technology for your Internet use is like blaming the growth of McDonalds for your food addiction.

 

[Hamster at Dawn]

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.

I hate it when people do that. Spend as much time as you like on your phone when you're alone or just chilling out but when you meet up with other people then you should actually appreciate them being there. At an extreme, you'd end up always organising and going to events but spending the whole time at those events organising other events and talking to people who didn't bother to show up. It's just silly.

 

[Tragedy's Rebellion]

I've thought about it and yes, it is dominating our lives, but that's a good thing. We are far better off now than humanity has ever been before and that's thanks to technology. You can still go hiking in the mountains or go swimming etc, so it's not like media has enveloped our lives so that we can't breathe without being near it.

There are people who try to avoid technology, but there is no point, you are just limiting yourself. It's also very backwards to not exploit it as much as you can, these things are made to be used, not to sit in a corner and rot.

EDIT: Also it's just rude, if people meet irl and use their iphones all the time. You can use them everywhere else, just enjoy the company and if you aren't enjoying yourself, why are you even out with them?

 

[Dorian6]

Woooow do you have any more clever observations?

Fire hot?

 

[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.

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.

The more complicated the technology, the more complicated it is to fix. Remember the days when all you had to do to get light was to strike a match and light a lamp, and all you had to do to turn it off was snuff it out? Now you need a power source and all sorts of circuits. And if just one part of that circuit is bad, you have to inspect the whole thing. The worst you can get with an oil lamp was maybe a bit of water in the oil. Just change that stuff out and you're good.

Or remember the days when to fix the TV reception, all you had to do was adjust those bunny ears? Maybe add some tinfoil or have somebody stand next to it for a while? Man, those were the days. Sure, there were only a handful channels, no DVR and no HD, but wasn't that so much better?

Also, how much time you spend on the Internet is entirely up to you. Blaming the growth of technology for your Internet use is like blaming the growth of McDonalds for your food addiction.

Fair enough, well said. Sometimes, I just think the technology some people use these days is a bit... unnecessary. Mind you, that's just me, I'm about as old-fashioned as they come.

And I'm not blaming the internet for how much time I spend on it. I'm quite aware of how much of my life I have whittled away. Sorry if I made it sound that way ^^"

Edit; Hey, thanks to everyone who contributed, it's been awesome to read all your opinions. Sadly, I must go, as I have school, and if I don't get to sleep soon, I'll fall asleep in class again. Continue the discussion if you so wish, thanks anyway.

You know what the funny thing is? I feel asleep, because I had been up all night on the internet, like tonight. I am a very very stupid person. Pot calling the kettle black, no?

 

[-Dragmire-]

Technology can have my life, I wasn't doing anything terribly important with it any way. When it comes time to plug our brains into the internet, I'll be first in line.

 

[Choppaduel]

It's probably taking over some people's lives, but the "taking over our lives" statement is meaningless. Technologies are created to make some task more convenient, for the accountant, the creation of the adding machine saves a great deal of time. Now lets say the adding machine was treated like facebook where you are ostracized, to some extent, for not having one. Then all the farmers and other non-accountants think they have to use them to fit in. So in a sense its "dominating their lives."

So try to avoid technologies that are merely social/status symbols.

 

[Mr. 47]

In Soviet Russia, technology uses YOU.

It only rules you if you let it rule you. I don't use twitter, facebook, msn, and don't really E-mail people. I do not feel that technology rules me. I use technology quite a bit, hours obsessively spent on minecraft proves this, but I know that I have to stop sometime, and so I do. Like all indulgencents (Murdered that word) if used in moderation, it is fine. That is, of course, about media and social technologies, the use of automobiles has become a neccesity, so yes. Technology is dominating us in that regard.

 

[wranlgler of SVs]

ACCOUNT HAS BEEN ABANDONED

 

[The Unworthy Gentleman]

A teacher who can't find something to do in the lesson without computers is a shitty teacher. Even an ICT lesson can be done on pen and paper most of the time. For everything else, there are other lessons that should have been planned that can be done at the time, rather than waiting and missing a lesson. But more on topic, yes, we are more reliant on technology. However, that isn't a bad thing at all, in fact it's a good thing really. Since we've had the internet there has been readily available information on pretty much everything, with computers to do work on and email people with we can communicate effectively and efficiently, rather than with scrawled handwriting delivered by a pigeon.

It has it's downsides, however it has more benefits. As long as you don't become lazy then it has no effect on weight either.

 

[MasterOfHisOwnDomain]

When I'm not using technology as in sitting in front of a computer, I tend to get away from it. I don't turn my phone on, use a watch for the time instead and tell people who talk about their facebook pages to "Shut the heck up". Even my friends. There should be a clear distinction between virtual and real world at all times!

 

[The_ModeRazor]

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.

How do you know you're not?

And I guess OP's right and whatnot. Food for thought, thinky stuff. Roll on snare drum. Curtains.