Technology Shaping Humans' lives

Technology shaping Humans lives.

       In the 16 and a half years that I have existed on this Earth, I never really realized the extent of technology on our lives. The fact that nearly 100% of the things that we take part in everyday revolves around some form of technology or innovation. Most of us humans are oblivious to this fact. In a span of a couple of weeks that I have been attending this Reading Place class, my eyes have been opened to this whole other dimension of life. An example that has been brought up several times is a Cellphone/Smartphone. People do not realize how much control these man-made devices have over us. I have been a part of the Smartphone world for the past 3 years. Before that, I was stuck with a simple QWERTY slide phone. After some reflection, I realized that I used to read a lot more back then and used several more resources to find out the stuff I needed to know. Now, everything is just a swipe of my finger away.

      This brings me to the Google connection. In David Carr’s Is Google Making Us Stupid, he makes a very detailed argument stating that Google is controlling our lives. He mentions media theorist Marshall McLuhan. He says, “…..media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought.” This is exactly what I am trying to get at. Human’s thought processing and decision making has changed drastically. Presidential elections are a great example of this. An American’s decision-making capabilities have been severely altered due to the media’s constant coverage of every aspect of a candidate’s life. During the 1800s and 1900s, the media did not have the means to constantly survey a candidate’s life. Rumors and scandals wouldn’t be spread as fast and some people may not even find out due to lack of proper communication and transportation.

       My last point brings me to an article that I stumbled upon. This article is titled “Smartphones Will Be Smarter than Humans By 2017, Enough To Perform Tasks As A ‘Secret Digital Agent.”The author of this article, Kukil Bora, says that Smartphones will be able to “predict their owners' next move, their next purchase or even interpret their actions.” This astounds me to a point where I want to start limiting my own smartphone use and start using my brain more. 

Technology shaping Humans lives.

In the 16 and a half years that I have existed on this Earth, I never really realized the extent of technology on our lives. The fact that nearly 100% of the things that we take part in everyday revolves around some form of technology or innovation. Most of us humans are oblivious to this fact. In a span of a couple of weeks that I have been attending this Reading Place class, my eyes have been opened to this whole other dimension of life. An example that has been brought up several times is a Cellphone/Smartphone. People do not realize how much control these man-made devices have over us. I have been a part of the Smartphone world for the past 3 years. Before that, I was stuck with a simple QWERTY slide phone. After some reflection, I realized that I used to read a lot more back then and used several more resources to find out the stuff I needed to know. Now, everything is just a swipe of my finger away.

This brings me to the Google connection. In David Carr’s Is Google Making Us Stupid, he makes a very detailed argument stating that Google is controlling our lives. He mentions media theorist Marshall McLuhan. He says, “…..media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought.” This is exactly what I am trying to get at. Human’s thought processing and decision making has changed drastically. Presidential elections are a great example of this. An American’s decision-making capabilities have been severely altered due to the media’s constant coverage of every aspect of a candidate’s life. During the 1800s and 1900s, the media did not have the means to constantly survey a candidate’s life. Rumors and scandals wouldn’t be spread as fast and some people may not even find out due to lack of proper communication and transportation.

My last point brings me to an article that I stumbled upon. This article is titled “Smartphones Will Be Smarter than Humans By 2017, Enough To Perform Tasks As A ‘Secret Digital Agent.”The author of this article, Kukil Bora, says that Smartphones will be able to “predict their owners' next move, their next purchase or even interpret their actions.” This astounds me to a point where I want to start limiting my own smartphone use and start using my brain more.