Taking a Closer Look at Lives
As a recent Facebook convert, I have come to see the beauty (and insidiousness) of the most powerful social networking tool mankind has ever known. I was a hold out until my scramble to cling to my senior year memories and connections led me to take drastic measures: I joined up. I now see the potential in utilizing such a tool. Having seen the futility of my stubbornness, I started to re-evaluate the role of technology in other areas of my life, too.
Lately, I am starting to feel as if I am being left behind and that I will not be able to catch up. Do you ever feel that way? Will I be declared untrustworthy if I try to limit the role technology plays in my life? Is it possible that I will permanently fall out of the loop? Will a decision to remove television from my life come back to ruin me? I am constantly expounding upon the virtues of television-free living, but more and more, I find myself unable to participate in conversations with my peers about the shows they watch because I am unfamiliar with the subject matter.
I like to think I am in control of technology; I use it to facilitate my ideas and desires but keep it from replacing the more important things in my life. For instance, I am beginning to consider the possibility that I am doing myself a disservice by refusing to get a smart phone with a full keyboard. I wonder, in five years, if my thumbs will be irreparably behind the times, leaving me without the communication skills vital for the 21st century.
While these examples are partially in jest, it is important to assess the role technology plays in my life. I strive to maintain a balance, ensuring that technology never becomes the master while also making sure I utilize the opportunities it provides. For example, I’ve found myself addicted to the blue glow of my laptop screen. I am currently testing my willpower each morning by seeing if I can delay the compulsion to turn on my computer as soon as I wake up. Until recently, this was always my first action of the day.
After I gave in to the whole text messaging thing, (which I was also slow to adopt), I now see it as a legitimate form of communication. However, when I hear that little beep from my phone indicating someone has just sent me a few kilobytes of information, I lose all focus and clarity and cannot resume my current activity until I check my “Inbox.” Clearly I have a long way to go before I can confidently declare myself the master.
When I think about computers during my short existence, I am struck by another fascinating revelation. Myself and others born in the late 20th century experienced the universal proliferation of personal computers. This gives us a unique perspective on the matter: we are able to remember life before and after computing came to dominate human lives. Those before us are virtually technological illiterates and have a hard time grasping the most seemingly basic computer knowledge. Those born after us are completely immersed in it and have never known a life without constant, binary input. Our insight can be used to further the dialogue about how technology will shape our lives in the years to come. My exploration of what technology means in my life will not end with this posting; I will try to remain conscious of how it influences me and will try to remain open to adopting new advances in the future.
Microfiction
Good article, Greg. But I’m curious, what’s behind your decision to remove television from your life? Are you against film as an art-form? Or do you feel that most modern television programs aren’t up to snuff? Maybe t.v. previously took up so much of your time that you felt you weren’t able to pursue other worthwhile ventures?
I am unenthusiastic about the quality of most t.v. shows, but I do make time for some. However, rather than making sure I’m home and in front of a t.v. set when they air, I get my fix through downloading or streaming episodes of shows I like, like: the Daily Show, Colbert Report, the Office, Dexter, Bill Maher, the Tonight Show (formerly) w/Conan, as well as select interviews from the Charlie Rose show, Inside the Actor’s Studio, 60 Minutes, et al.
I love the near-instant gratification of deciding I want to watch an episode of a show that aired on, say, November 23rd, 2008, and being able to do so often within minutes. Same goes for music. And I’m terribly excited about the looming revolution with e-books. Maybe then college text books won’t be so damn expensive. That would be a positive result of technology. Unless of course you’re one of the people reaping the rewards of educational textbooks. Better write that psychology book quickly, Greg!
Formally thinking about the role technology plays in our lives is very useful..I also found myself resisting the Facebook rage, and I still do think it’s a silly thing, but you almost feel alien not to be “on Facebook”.
It’s interesting how you say we (born circa 1985) are in a generation that can remember life before computers. I certainly can, though I can’t remember life without TV, although I would like to. Kids used to go play outside!!! everyday! It was only at around the year 2000 that computers were a normal thing to use regularly, and kids born in the late 90s are so plugged in that they might forget the beauty of exercise and just being outdoors…
I also wonder how much technology will replace other important aspects of my life. Will I open a book tonight, or pick up my guitar, or will I go on Facebook and waste hours stalking friends I haven’t seen in years or barely know? I think a lot of people would choose the later, sadly enough.
I also don’t think you are missing out by not getting a phone with a keyboard! Cultivate your plants and mind, not your thumbs’ ability to message at rapid rates, and you will be better off (I think).
Tim,
My decision to remove T.V. from my life is meant to allow me to pursue alternate interests. I do not want to be able to just turn on a television and veg out. I want to engage in as much growth oriented behavior as possible (as gabby says, “cultivating my plants and mind”) and t.v watching just doesn’t cut it most of the time. I am not saying that there is nothing good to watch on t.v., on the contrary there is too much good media to consume today so I also don’t want to be sucked into any stories. I love love love movies because they are discrete, you sit down, devote 2 hours of your time and are left with a complete story that (hopefully) makes you think and leaves you feeling all sorts of different emotions. Also when I am at my parents or somewhere else with a t.v. I will usually turn it on and aimlessly flip through the channels and feel unsatisfied but strangely calm. After I get that out of my system I can go without T.V. again for a while. I agree the streaming video and down-loadable media now can fill the whole and I believe a T.V. and a computer will eventually be fully compatible.
As I mention in the article I am wary of technologies influence but clearly I cannot live without it. If I didn’t have constant access to a computer life and being a student would be much more difficult and uncomfortable. A computer is enough to keep my hands full.
Gabby I think that there is definitely something to be said about the physical world but Mike and I have been talking a lot after seeing Avatar and posting this essay. If in 40 years time we are practically living in the digital age I don’t want to be left behind. I am hoping to pick and choose how much I buy into modern tech but still stay abreast of the big changes so that I don’t get left behind to become a relic.
I recently made the decision to give up having internet at home. It seemed like a good way to save money and redirect my energy towards things I consider “better” for myself, like crocheting and reading and exercising. Within two weeks, I had unexpectedly landed a job for this coming summer that requires a lot of communication with many people over great distances. (I am organizing a summer camp.) Lo and behold, thirty-two days after I had cut myself off, I was back online with a vengeance (and good thing, or I wouldn’t have caught this post!).
My take on ALL new technologies– iphones, computers, internet, weapons, alternative fuels, cars that drive themselves, cat litter boxes which rake and flush themselves, etc.– is that we should not fully adopt them until we know their long-term effects. I am suspicious. And I believe that it is not at all neurotic to be so, because many of the great catastrophes of history were caused by technologies whose full scope and capability were unknown.
Further, most things that help us do things faster maximize our unsustainable behaviors, and in my opinion are expediting our demise.
So I would absolutely approach with caution.
And personally, life WAS better without the internet. In that month, I called friends, wrote letters, stayed out later and was surprised by news. (When information is delivered to me by the newspaper, tv or computer, I just sort of slowly accept it. On the other hand, when people tell me things– gossip, or items of local interest, my reactions are much more dramatic, which I apparently prefer.) My life felt more like an existence that people would seek rather than aim to repair.
And P.S., think of how childhood has changed!
I can empathize with your hesitance to adopt new technologies Alex, but I think that it we took the route of determining all the long-term effects of new gadgets before we used them we would be left behind long before we found out all of the negative effects. We live in such a complex world today that the effects of technology will be hard to tease out, as it effects our physical and mental beings and also probably interacts with other gizmos. I think we are at a point where we need to buy into some technology and especially let our kids into the digital world, otherwise they will lose the technological fluency they will need to function in the future world.
I commend you for trying to remove the internet from your home (and all of the wonderful stuff you got accomplished then) but I think your story holds a message. If we want to live in isolation from the rest of the world than I think we can remove tech, but if we want to participate through jobs or social mediums then we need to get with the program or face obsolescence.
Check out this NYTimes article where a couple moved into a virtually isolated landscape but required the internet in their yurt.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/garden/31yurt.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=yurt&st=cse