With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

-- By LeoFarbman - 05 Mar 2015

Technology & The Modern World

The Internet, paired alongside the smart phone, has expanded the spread of information in truly amazing ways; the world is at our fingertips. This instantaneous availability and rapid reaction has left a population with so many answers, yet not the answer on how to live alongside these innovations. It seems the more connected we become, the less connected we actually are. America's obsessive use of smart phones and tracking of lives through social media is suffocating our culture and its development.

Thoughts Need Space Too

As I sit here writing this essay, outwardly frustrated by these mind-consuming devices, I will likely get distracted and check my phone countless times; I just can’t resist. Check, post, text, search, etc., I’m constantly in two or three places at the same time and it almost feels out of my control. Maybe I’m alone in this, but I don't think that's the case. We are trained to bury our heads in the world of our phones whenever there’s a stressor or dull moment. Thinking is now less essential to day-to-day life; simple pondering is a lost art. We have become a generation obsessed with high score games, pushed notifications, emojis, and selfies; unable to ignore the constant flood of information and actually focus on our thoughts. Our thoughts need this time and space. We are losing out on an unprecedented amount of opportunities to grow.

The Non-Experienced Life

Our appreciation of the current moment has deteriorated; everything is now instantaneously documented into "memories" (the appropriate and slightly hypnotic term for iPhone photos). The experience comes and goes through photos, videos, texts, Snap-Chats and Instagrams; we exist to be seen, to show off, no longer to experience. This lack of engagement permeates through our society and it is cause for concern as appreciation continues to dwindle. I recently went to a sold-out concert and each minute a glow would pull me out of the essence of the song. I understand a few photos, but nearly the whole show? It is no longer enough to just be somewhere, to feel the moment. Days later, I was at a nice family dinner and it happened again. The table next to us had Mom on her iPhone, Dad on his Sony camera, and their two young boys watching cartoons on their iPad. I just sat there, again awe struck, contemplating, “Is this how the next generation is learning how to converse and engage with others?” Even table manners are at stake.

Engaged discussion and experience are no longer necessary or even desired by the masses. Online commenting is revolutionary, but not a replacement. We need undisrupted moments of human interaction to cognitively and socially progress; to facilitate growth between minds. Being taken out of the moment, whether it is a meeting or a song, has become accepted practice in our culture. Interruptions – or should I say notifications – are no longer considered disruptions. As experience is lost, our development will start to crumble.

The Relative Explosion

This modern disconnection only starts with the instant moment and expands exponentially with our alternate, social media personas. Our culture has always been relative in nature; people concerned with those around them to help define and quantify their own existence. Unfortunately, this common and debilitating trait has been greatly intensified by the digital revolution. We now must tailor ourselves to depict how we want the world to see us (See: Facebook, Linked-In, Match.com, etc.).Everyone is constantly forced to peer over each other’s shoulders, scared to stand out, yet simultaneously hoping to. Social media has estranged people from their physical existence and American confidence is suffering because of it. Mental escape is harder than ever. The genius, reclusive artist or writer has a much harder time finding comfort and isolation; his work must be blogged, posted, liked, shared.

People have become more and more alienated by this incessant visibility. Ideally, yes, this all can all be avoided with some effort, but not everyone has that courage, especially those at the more impressionable ages. Time, energy and passion are wasted everyday on, and because of, these avatars.

Education & Beyond

Modern technologies have changed the way we think and interact, but not much is being done to approach this societal problem. The technology is here to stay and it is long overdue for changes in education. 70% of parents agree.

Currently, Internet and social media education in schools of all levels is low to nonexistent. There is no nationally recognized standard or training system to teach kids how to understand the Internet. There are also no nationally sponsored education conferences. Only a few high schools in the country have implemented a semester-long course on Internet use (and even in that area the head of the teacher union is trying to get it removed). Those classes are based around the Common Sense Education Curriculum, which focuses on potential dangers from youth Internet usage, not on how to help understand what it means to be an active Internet user and how to behave responsibly with this technology always on your hip. However important they are, this problem does not end with cyber-bullying and kids giving away private information.

I believe education needs to be implemented in a similar fashion to that of Sexual Education after the AIDS crisis in the 1980’s. Sex-Ed rightfully focuses on safe sex and how to use contraception, but also importantly on broader questions like what it means to be sexually active and when is it appropriate to start having sex. Similarly, a practical yet theoretical approach to the use of technology must be implemented.

Society’s obsessive use of technology is a worrisome movement especially as generations are brought up without much, if any, guidance.

The advances are not stopping; it’s time we collaborate, let’s say on a wiki, and discuss where to turn next.

From my point of view the essay's most important problem is that it doesn't know there's an off-switch.

I live my life in the Net. I have been using email for forty years. I know as much about how to build, program, use and understand the social implications of computing as anyone else I know, and I know the people in this world.

But I don't use an Internet-connected phone in my hand. I'm surrounded by computers that I run, and they do everything for me, but they do not demand my attention in return.

You're not talking about the consequences of technology. You are talking about the consequences of using it badly, as a result of habit-formation that was convenient for the sellers of mobile bandwidth and surveilling-you "services," but which as you see are not good for the cognitive development of human beings.

If you learn to use technology more wisely, you will grow wiser and better connected, instead of less wise and more isolated. In the meantime, Sherry Turkle's 2011 book Alone Together will interest you.

Comments are still available in the "History" of this page. But the next draft will be clean, overwriting my comments here as well, leaving coherent history in the wiki as well.