"E-mail. Facebook. Got a text! Oh, a retweet, awesome. What's new on Google News?" Sounds all too familiar, doesn't it? We put too much emphasis on the need to get the newer, better iPad, for example, that we forget what is actually important in life. Recently in China a young man had his kidney surgically removed in order to have enough money to buy an iPad. Guess it costs more than an arm and a leg.
Technology has made life much easier in many ways, but we face a negative aspect of new technologies as well. We become dependent on them and find ourselves spiraling out of control while attempting to make sure we have the newest technologies to make our lives seemingly easier. However, we are actually making our lives more complicated by filling them with unnecessary added stresses. I urge that we all take a moment each day to disconnect from all of our modern, technological chains and remember what is truly a priority in our lives.
An example that has likely affected you if you are a member of the modern age is the lack of appreciation of actual human interaction. And no I'm not talking about Skype. I mean actually talking to someone, whether they are your friend, significant other, or a stranger. As much as I sound like a Luddite, I swear I am not. I simply appreciate the concrete interaction that is slowly disappearing from our society thanks to Facebook, SMS messaging, and the ease of talking to someone via a "newfangled" medium. This is a problem because some meaning is lost through the process of encoding and decoding the messages sent and received through these media.
I think this could be a problem in the future if the younger generations who grew up with the new technologies lose the ability to interact effectively in the real world. They will lose the ability to make real conversation and the style that goes hand in hand with speaking. Instead everyone will be talking through their devices and, when the time arises when they will need to actually talk to someone, they will talk like computers. A generation of emotionless people who talk in a horribly direct way is on its way if something doesn’t change.
Another problem is the loss of privacy thanks to the technological age and the pervasiveness of social networks. Now, everyone can post anything and everything that is going on in their lives on their social network profile. As much as I'd like to know how great or horrible everyone's day at work or school went, I am worried about the availability of information. Aside from the marketing executives who buy your information and the hackers who could retrieve it quite easily, there are more and more, in my opinion, invasions of privacy. Now employers can even ask for your Facebook password to check for inconsistencies, explicit content, and illegal activity. Not too long ago someone who you met once wouldn't have the luxury of knowing everything about you. Today that's different, but I'm not sure if it's better.
What can we do? The answer is simple; people have been doing it since the beginning of time. Simply step away from the technologies that are consuming our lives for a while. If you are the type of person who spends half your day on Facebook, deactivate it for a week or two and see how much extra time you have to do things you enjoy in the real world. If you are the type of person who stays up all night texting, turn off your phone when you are home for the day. In fact, turn off all of your electronics before you go to bed and see how much better you sleep. This is symbolic, but it is also based in fact because it has been found that the frequency that comes from electronics, even when they’re not in use, disrupts REM sleep. Escape the destructive spiral of all of your electronic devices and just disconnect.
USB cables are our new chains and we are playing Big Brother to one another daily. As much as new technologies can improve our quality of life, they also have the potential to create more problems. I think it's important to disconnect once in awhile, and I urge everyone to do so and remember what it's like to live without the pressure to check your new Facebook notifications every thirty minutes.
