I have a love/hate relationship with technology. I understand its utility and its importance in driving innovation in many important areas. I especially applaud its application in education and the way it is revolutionizing learning and teaching methods. My eight-year-old daughter can already do things on the computer that I only learnt post-secondary school. So I am comfortable at that point; as we would say, I will give jack his jacket.
On the other hand, however, while I am no conspiracy theorist, I believe that this spiral of technological change, particularly in the consumer market, is a joint strategy of corporate heads, expert money makers and tech wizards all working together to steal our time, shrink our personal interaction and make trillions of dollars doing it. As we swap, upgrade and quickly discard older models for newer ones with barely distinguishable “improved” features, I have an image of these people in a board room rolling over in full bellylaugh at the gullibility of consumers.
I will say upfront that I am a self-imposed technological neophyte and I love my ignorance. I do not want to cured, educated or otherwise inundated with the latest of this or that. Kudos to those who do and enjoy doing it – leave me alone in my backwardness is all I ask. I think that it is too tiring to keep up with the daily changing language and names of new models; my brain cells unfortunately cannot retain the minutiae of it all.
Moreover, I find that this market for consumer technology is slowly changing the way we relate and organize socially. Everyone is in their private world – children no longer want to go outside and play together and invent things, and conversations and relationships are now carried out in this online world where feelings and emotions are expressed through emoticons, half-spelt words and likes.
In public gatherings, people are barely carrying on conversations as half of the time they already have two other conversations going on their mobile phone. A friend of mine was relating that he was in an elevator recently and everyone who came in was looking down doing something on their cellphone – even the basics of friendly chatter is diminished. It is depersonalizing our social interaction. Almost every area of social interaction that you can think of can be done online. I have also deduced that it is zapping our ability to spell and write good English. The reduction of the English language to a jumble of letters, numbers and symbols in our electronic communication is bound to cross over to our personal and professional world.
Then there is world of mobile phones. These are my main nemesis. I think that it is [one of] the most creative and wonderful but at the same time the most insidious and invasive pieces of technology invented to date. You can never be disconnected and the insistent ping if you take a second too long to answer a query or respond to some mundane conversation makes even privacy in the bathroom a thing of the past. It has become an appendage – an organ.
Recently, I went out and did not take my cellphone with me and someone looked at me incredulously and asked why I would do such a crazy thing.
Did we have life on planet earth before the invention of the BlackBerry? When do we get a chance to think, to reflect, to have quiet time without someone having the ability to track us down and every single moment be monopolized by oftentimes trivia? For businesses with zealous employees this is a dream come true.
Work hours are limitless; there is no escaping, no downtime, it is a constant 24-hour cycle which I think will prove unhealthy and counterproductive in the long run. Added to this is the high cost of attaining the latest this or that, an effort which will always remain elusive as the market engineers ensure that they continue to produce the latest every day.
Technology is driving change but we should be also aware that it is also changing our social landscape in fundamental ways. How do we ensure that we use it, harness it, even become producers but not get carried away by it?
• Shantal Munro Knight is a development specialist and executive coordinator at the Caribbean Policy Development Centre.