What is the single most important digital technology in your life -- the one that you couldn't do without?
Technology is so immersed in the framework of our modern lives that it is sometimes hard to imagine what it would be like to not have our laptops, desktops, iPhone, iPods, iPads, Nooks, Blackberrys, and GPSs. What would our lives be like if we suddenly couldn't text our family and friends? If we couldn't email while walking down the street, Skype at the click of a button, or pick a restaurant and look up directions while driving downtown? The answer that sometimes comes to mind is: easy. Yes, easy. I think about these things and about the amount of time and space they occupy in our lives (okay not necessarily physical space - I've seen the size of those chart filing cabinets that they used to have in the dark ages-- you know back before files went digital- way back in 95.) But when you think about the height of our expectations today- the amount of achievement now immediately possible, and thus expected, on a day to day basis verses that of twenty, or even fifteen years ago it's a little overwhelming. How are we to meet our daily potential when the limits are forever being broken by the new and latest technological means?
So life would be easier, less stressful, perhaps even more enjoyable without the mass of technological enterprises at the forefront of each of our lives. But the problem is. We love it. We rely on it. We need it. Or so it seems. The reality is that our lives are centered around the ever extending technological realm, and without it we virtually can't function on the same level as our technologically oriented peers. Plus there are those aspects of technology that we just simply can't do without. That we have placed in such a central part of our existence that the idea of going without them is likened to the notion of going without water or food. No iPad?! But how will I live? I need to trade stalks, read books, chat with friends, plan my life, my retirement, my children's education, write my grocery list- I NEED my iPad. Okay, so maybe I'm being a bit dramatic, but seriously, we use these things in virtually every arena of our lives in some respect or another. To take it away would be devastating to the efficiency of our technologically centered lives.
This go to item for me is my iPhone. I know, I know, everyone says that, but maybe that's because its true. My iPhone is the primary portal for my phone calls, text messages, facebook chat, IMs, and email. With my iPhone I manage my finances, take pictures and videos, write lists, listen to music, and play games. Its especially central to my communication with my husband who is in the military and equally reliant on his iPhone. Without it we would be at the mercy of the limited computer access at Marine Corps installations in places like Afghanistan and Kuwait. While most of these bases are equipped with wifi they're not exactly handing out laptops to their men. With his iPhone Danny is able to use the wifi so that the two of us can actually have a face-time conversation.
SO what would life be like without it? I don't know, but I know I don't really want to find out. Sure, life might have been easier if I had never known the ease and efficiency of leading an iPhone life; if I had never know the joys and benefits of seeing my husband and accessing facebook via my cell while at the grocery store. But I do know these things, and I have come to expect them, to depend on them, and even enjoy the benefits of them. The stress generated by the every expanding realms of these technologies wouldn't be alleviated by their elimination, it would be heightened by our subsequently expanding expectations.
Now there's a good use for technology...communications with those we love, which would otherwise be difficult, if not impossible. I have a son, Daniel, who recently returned from a USMC stint in Afghanistan. But on the flip side, I was just thinking about recently finding all the letters that my father wrote to my mother when he was stationed in Korea with the army. Now, that's just something that can't be replaced by technology.
ReplyDeleteMaybe not entirely replaced, but definitely supplemented. My husband and I started dating the day before he left for SOI so our relationship really began through technological means. Our iPhones have a running record of all of our messages sent back and forth during those times, from the planning of our first date right up until today. We always have them to read, and our children someday will be able to look at those messages and see the beginnings of our relationship and marriage. I still write to my husband the old snail mail way too, but that's mostly because I like to send him messages in every way possible, but it's sometimes nicer to take the time to slow down and just write.
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