Ingenious. Momentous. Transcending. Fuckin weird.
There are aspects that I find extremely intriguing and obviously groundbreaking, and other parts of technology that I find utterly too powerful and excessively engulfing of our “real” lives. At what point is too much? Are we creating and indulging in a new reality that may gain more power than we can even conceive? The fact that so much public information is accessible is quite scary to me. If you were curious, with the click of a button or a simple voice command to Siri, you could pinpoint my exact location and my last thought released via Twitter, Facebook, or another virtual social realm (And if you don’t know who Siri is, just Google it or look around you and anyone holding the newest IPhone will also hold the answer).
I don’t like this. To some extent, I want to preserve some sort of personal mystery that an app can’t answer.
I realize how hypocritical I am as I conveniently type this blog on my Dell laptop in an overly sized Starbucks café, which will then be posted publicly on my blog site for the world to see. I openly admit I take advantage of technology, just as technology has taken advantage of me. As I type, I look to the left of me to find a seven-ish year old entranced in a game of Fruit Ninja on her mom’s IPhone. Seven-ish may seem extreme or not to some of you, but fun and games turns to concern for me when I am faced with the reality that some 2 year old baby knows how to work an IPad better than me. See for yourself and add a digit to his whopping 534 thousand and something You Tube views.
---> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGMsT4qNA-c
---> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGMsT4qNA-c
I don’t like this. I can confidently claim that at this point, technology is too much.
I have come to terms with the fact that new technological discoveries and creations will be made at an exceedingly fast pace. This is my generation. A generation in which I struggle to quicken my every step and conform in accordance with the ever-changing newness surrounding me. If there ever is a time when I feel like I’m falling behind in adapting to the speedy developments that emerge, I need not to worry because I’m sure there will be an app created for this deficiency. For now I’ll just resort to the press of my Android’s easy button.
For other weird technology reading:
http://www.crank.net/technology.html
The two year old using the iPad like a pro does not scare me. Children are wondrously capable of learning and performing tasks adults find complicated. The iPad is merely his generation’s version of a pad of construction paper and a box of crayons. Technology advances and society moves along with it.
ReplyDeleteWhat disturbs me is the idea that people spend their lives proclaiming their mundane achievements to the world. That we live in a society that is so devalued that everyone not only desires, but requires, others to validate every aspect of their life, as if to re-affirm their own existence and what little meaning it possesses. Life should not need constant streaming updates in order to have inherent value.
I would have to agree with you for the most part. It's not that I'm scared that a 2 year old is outperforming a 24 year old, rather I'm more perplexed and slow at accepting our constantly advancing technology. I'd like to argue that it is "human-nature" for a baby to discover and learn that instead of eating crayons, we use them to draw shapes and objects. It is not human nature for a baby to discover life through the manipulation of computer buttons which feed us answers so we don't have to get off our asses to search for them. I also question the motives and values of parents as they video capture and then expose their children like this.
ReplyDeleteI am mutually disturbed at the societal devaluing we've all created and fed into. Nothing depresses me more than reading Tweets from a 12 year old follower that she's "At @kitkatkaty26 's house! Whoop whoop!"
:(