technophilia/technophobia
Feb. 3rd, 2005 08:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chelidonA piece of an email exchange earlier today, to a colleague who is doing a piece on impacts of recent technological developments on our lives. He wanted to know what I liked about technology, ways it improved my life, but, of course, I couldn't give him just *one* side of the duality ;>
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Aside from medical breakthroughs, I'd say the most important thing to me personally is the ability to work from anywhere, anytime, and have an entire world of information at my fingertips 24x7. This is huge. I don't know if many people truly grasp the potential impact of, as Karl Marx would say, the workers control of the means of production, of being able to set up a cheap, powerful home office virtually anywhere in the world, that can do every bit of what it would have taken an entire corporate infrastructure to accomplish only a few years ago.
Speaking personally, I would not have been able to live where I live and do the work I do 20 years ago. I get to live out in the woods, in a rural area, and be intimately involved with the highest of high-tech at the same time. Not being limited to doing work within driving distance of your house is huge, and has potentially enormous impacts on demographics.
At the same time, the other side of that double-edged sword is sharp. With every gift comes obligations, they are two sides of the same coin. The ability to work anytime, anywhere often becomes an expectation to work all the time, everywhere. With the breaking of boundaries by technology -- boundaries of time and space, come the dangers of boundarylessness. For a long while there when I lived in the city, I constantly had 2-3 or more devices on me at all times through which others could reach me. There was no down-time, no time which was really totally mine, or totally dedicated to my family. Interruption was constant, and studies have shown that, just like with computers, people become less efficient with too-frequent context-switching. Not to mention totally stressed out. We're not made to live that way, on 24-hour adrenal overload. We need rest.
It's a quality of life issue, a constant balancing act. Here's one example. When I moved out of the D.C. area, I found that my precious Bluetooth and GPRS-enabled GSM phone that could connect me to the Internet from virtually anywhere had no signal anywhere near where I was moving to. Even so, it took me 6 months to cancel my old service, partially because I figured I'd use it when travelling, and partially because carrying that phone around was also a comfort, a safety blanket, it meant I was *connected*, plugged-in. Well, perhaps here I risk branding myself a heretical luddite, but for the last six months or so, I have had *no* cell phone. Not the 3+ wireless devices I used to carry around. None. Zero. Zip. And I'm actually happier than I was before. I've got email, 2 phone lines at home, a cable modem, and...when I'm out of the house, in my car, walking, that's my time -- to think, to reflect, or just to listen to music, give my brain a break, and be absolutely present in the moment for a change. I'm probably a much safer driver, too.
I wouldn't say I'm a technophobe -- far from it. But I do think, as a reformed technophile, that there has to be a balance. All of these sparkly gifts need to be examined closely to see what the costs really are, what obligations are incurred by grafting them onto and implanting them into our lives. The gadget-crazy consumer culture we're surrounded by is largely lacking two essential questions -- *why* do we need this, and *what* is the cost?
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Aside from medical breakthroughs, I'd say the most important thing to me personally is the ability to work from anywhere, anytime, and have an entire world of information at my fingertips 24x7. This is huge. I don't know if many people truly grasp the potential impact of, as Karl Marx would say, the workers control of the means of production, of being able to set up a cheap, powerful home office virtually anywhere in the world, that can do every bit of what it would have taken an entire corporate infrastructure to accomplish only a few years ago.
Speaking personally, I would not have been able to live where I live and do the work I do 20 years ago. I get to live out in the woods, in a rural area, and be intimately involved with the highest of high-tech at the same time. Not being limited to doing work within driving distance of your house is huge, and has potentially enormous impacts on demographics.
At the same time, the other side of that double-edged sword is sharp. With every gift comes obligations, they are two sides of the same coin. The ability to work anytime, anywhere often becomes an expectation to work all the time, everywhere. With the breaking of boundaries by technology -- boundaries of time and space, come the dangers of boundarylessness. For a long while there when I lived in the city, I constantly had 2-3 or more devices on me at all times through which others could reach me. There was no down-time, no time which was really totally mine, or totally dedicated to my family. Interruption was constant, and studies have shown that, just like with computers, people become less efficient with too-frequent context-switching. Not to mention totally stressed out. We're not made to live that way, on 24-hour adrenal overload. We need rest.
It's a quality of life issue, a constant balancing act. Here's one example. When I moved out of the D.C. area, I found that my precious Bluetooth and GPRS-enabled GSM phone that could connect me to the Internet from virtually anywhere had no signal anywhere near where I was moving to. Even so, it took me 6 months to cancel my old service, partially because I figured I'd use it when travelling, and partially because carrying that phone around was also a comfort, a safety blanket, it meant I was *connected*, plugged-in. Well, perhaps here I risk branding myself a heretical luddite, but for the last six months or so, I have had *no* cell phone. Not the 3+ wireless devices I used to carry around. None. Zero. Zip. And I'm actually happier than I was before. I've got email, 2 phone lines at home, a cable modem, and...when I'm out of the house, in my car, walking, that's my time -- to think, to reflect, or just to listen to music, give my brain a break, and be absolutely present in the moment for a change. I'm probably a much safer driver, too.
I wouldn't say I'm a technophobe -- far from it. But I do think, as a reformed technophile, that there has to be a balance. All of these sparkly gifts need to be examined closely to see what the costs really are, what obligations are incurred by grafting them onto and implanting them into our lives. The gadget-crazy consumer culture we're surrounded by is largely lacking two essential questions -- *why* do we need this, and *what* is the cost?
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no subject
Date: 2005-02-04 02:56 am (UTC)I think the only time I've truly been glad of my own cell was while on that roadtrip for almost a month. It was pretty handy to be able to call the hotels and say, "I got a bit sidetracked, so please don't rent my room out from under me"...or in some cases, call to ask WTF were they, anyway? Heh.
As a friend puts it, it's all about the american craving for little pieces of plastic.
Count me out.
And now, I've got another chapter or two to do before bed, and then I can reward myself -- hopefully with something other than politics. I know! I'll research international economics instead. Yippee.
Cell phone.
Date: 2005-02-04 03:44 am (UTC)We have a cell phone, but it's for *us*. It's kept turned off except when either we're making a call or we're travelling and expecting a call (for example, meeting people where one can benefit from a quick "I'm here, where are you?"
Or, to put it another way ...
Telephone lifestyle //
It gives little in return //
Rethink important
no subject
Date: 2005-02-04 04:49 am (UTC)Too funny. Yeah, I guess now that all of us hoi polloi can afford personal electronic gizmos out the yin-yang, it really is a status symbol to be unreachable. Woo hoo, I'm one of the unplugged elite! *rolls eyes*
You are a total nut. I say that, of course, with admiration, and not a little recognition ;->
Re: Cell phone.
Date: 2005-02-04 04:59 am (UTC)Oh, sneaky...a *bonus* haiku. Full marks! Gosh, I do have sneaky, sneaky friends. And I am just tickled by it :>
no subject
Date: 2005-02-04 05:13 am (UTC)As for being a total nut, better than half one, I say! Then I'd spent time wondering where the other half of me's gotten up to, and whether it's having more fun than I am. Probably. Hmph.
Re: Cell phone.
Date: 2005-02-04 02:57 pm (UTC)I do like the ability to call someone from the grocery store parking lot, or to touch base with others at the last minute. But that's not the same as having it wired to my head, like my sister and her peers (early 20's). Then again, when I lose internet access I feel as though I have a phantom limb, so perhaps I shouldn't throw stones.
Re: Cell phone.
Date: 2005-02-04 08:35 pm (UTC)Tied up, then feathers start ... oh!
Not that type of post?