Something is brewing in the air.
There is no question that gadgets are a way of life now for most of us. Many even argue that our gadgets are invasive to our lives and could lead to unforeseen consequences down the road.
With that in mind, is today’s generation digging its own grave much like pioneering of the industrial revolution led to environmental devastation within its first 100 years?
Framed another way, are people setting themselves up for disaster, intellectually and/or physically, by constructing their lives around the use of things like television, the Internet, smartphones, etc?
No doubt that digital technology is affecting our life experience. Think back to life prior to the the existence of cell phone technology. Coordinating with people required a bit more planning ahead because we didn’t have the luxury of text messaging and phone calls at will.
More importantly, the absence of such tools gave us different parameters for expectations, and how we reacted when things didn’t turn out as planned.
As an example, prior to any sort of cell or mobile phone device, including pagers, when you made plans with someone you either showed up or didn’t. If something went wrong and the person or people for which you were waiting did not make it, you had no idea why not and because of that you couldn’t get terribly perturbed by it until you had more information. But today if someone is more than say 15 minutes late or so and doesn’t call or text, you might be highly offended by this because you know he or she has the ability to communicate with you.
Small example but hopefully you get the point.
The real point is, today’s digital technology is reshaping how we live, but at what cost? Will we grow more and more connected or less and less? There will most certainly be effects, be them positive or negative and hypothetically both.
So what are those effects? How will text messaging shape the nature of human beings 50 and 75 years from now? How will things like Google and Facebook, now ingrained into our everyday lives, impact our interests, our imaginations, our resourcefulness after another 15 or 35 years.
I was excellent at navigating using maps and my intuition prior to getting a GPS device. Will I even be able to get around on my own without a GPS 25 years from now?
Sure hope so.
Such an easy contemplation to put off and not worry about. How much can we realistically safeguard our future selves from technological ambitions? Is this something we even need to worry about?
