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If you’re reading this blog, chances are the answer is yes. Heck, two years ago, this blog-writer had never visited a blog himself; how the tides have turned! There’s no arguing the fact that technology has encroached into almost every corner of our lives: we take our cell phones, PDAs and other portable devices to the movies, to dinners, even to bed with us. The BBC recently asked some experts what they thought, and predictably, opinions were split. Nada Kakabadse, a Professor at the Northampton Business School, said that technology overloads impairs our judgment and decision-making abilities. “It’s like losing your spatial judgment, so instead of walking through the door you walk into it. You’re more prone to have a car accident if you drive.”
But other experts claim that our technology fetish is teaching us to multitask better, thus making us more able to handle emails and text messages and phone calls and web surfing in our laps during a family dinner, and still work in some quality family time while we’re doing it. (I’m a little skeptical of this argument; it sounds a lot like that age-old defense of video games: they’re great for hand-eye coordination!)
We want to know what our readers think. Are gadgets like the much-hyped iPhone going to change our lives for the better, or are they taking over? (Think about: i-This and i-That; the underlying message there isn’t too subtle.)
Comments (7)
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I think its like anything, in that there are many degrees and its not a black and white issue.
One one extreme you have the people that practically go into a panic attack without their phone/mp3/Blackberry or can’t get off the Bluetooth for 5 seconds while dealing with the checkout clerk. On the other hand you have people who intentionally avoid mobiles/mp3/Blackberry just because everyone else has them.
In the middle is the rest of us. Sure, we seem to rely on technology and if it disapeared tomorrow we’d be more then a little disoriented, but its all relative. The reality is all this technology makes things easier, but it was more that a lack of technology before just made things a pain.
Think about finding payphones, or finding one that still had a phonebook in it. Or trying to get ahold of people when plans change. Or having to burn mix cd’s every week or be constantly swapping out dics in your discman or carrying around 3″ thick day planners. We have always been reliable on the same things for decades, its just much more streamlined now.
posted by serotonin on 3-5-2007 at 9:30 am
Agreed, this is not a black and white issue. On the positive side, my business associates can get hold of me no matter where I am, no matter when. I am no longer tied to my home waiting for info. On the negative side – see above. There is no longer an escape from work, it is there 24/7 all day everyday. It makes it easier to do my job but makes my job always there. There does not seem to be downtime like there used to be.
posted by Jane on 3-5-2007 at 10:16 am
I think I would have to agree..hold on I’ve got a call on my iPhone…yeah I agree with the second expert who says…wait I’m getting an i.m. on my Blackberry…so the guy said we’re better at multi-tasking…oops I have to reply to a text message on my cell. I think we don’t have enough…uh,oh there’s a new virus alert on my e-mail I’d better take care of that. No, we don’t yet have enough technology. We need to get all this different things on one simple device so that I don’t ever have to laeve my home or talk to a live human being ever again. That would surely lead us to a utopian society. If we never interact with other people we can never be offended by them and there will be no more killing. I have to go now I’m playing Grand Theft Auto on-line and I’m going on a major killing spree.
posted by Ernie on 3-5-2007 at 10:58 am
I think that technology has made us worse at the very thing it is supposed to promote, communication. While it is not a black and white issue, it is my belief that we are going in so many directions individually that we do not have time to spend on those things that make us better as human beings. I myself find that I do not make very good plans with friends or family, because “I’ll just call them on the way”. Or I try to call family members on the way to appointment because I am just too busy to make time for a meaningful conversation. Anywho, I think that while technology serves and important role in our lives we a society have allowed it take over and run our lives.
posted by Megan Betty on 3-5-2007 at 11:07 am
Steven Johnson’s excellent book Everything Bad Is Good For You makes just that argument… that video games, TV (especially the complex serialized or technical shows that we have now) and even role-playing games are making us smarter and better able to multitask. I bought the book because even as a kid I didn’t buy the argument that plugging endless quarters into “TEMPEST” was going to make me a better person, even though I did use that argument a few times. His book may not have completely convinced me, but he definitely makes his point and has a lot of good science to back it up.
posted by CJ Casey on 3-5-2007 at 1:35 pm
re: i-stuff. I recently heard a psychologist on NPR discussing narcissism in college-are and younger people. She used the i-pod as an example, saying that listening to music was once a shared activity, and that you had to listen to other people’s favorites as well as your own, whereas now the emphasis is on one’s own preferences.
posted by Barbara on 3-5-2007 at 11:30 pm
As a young boy, I remember my great grandmother telling me about the first automobile she ever saw; how people were afraid of them. Very quickly they became a indispensable part of our lives (for good or evil)
Growing up in the 70’s and 80’s I imagine that I will one day regale my grandchildren with tales of what it was like to have to go to the library to do research on a topic. Or only being able to buy the products that could be found at the local store.
Some consider me hopelessly out of date already. I don’t have a PDA(paper is far cheaper) or a cell phone(I like being out-of-reach) but when my ISP can’t connect me to the Internet, I go crazy in minutes.
Like the car, the Internet is part of our lives now – for good or evil.
posted by n2y2 on 3-6-2007 at 9:49 am