Today someone posted this on my Facebook feed:
http://www.socialmedianews.com.au/was-albert-einstein-right-about-technology/
And a week or two ago, it was this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7dLU6fk9QY
Aside from the fact that the quote from the first link is apocryphal (There's an explanation here), the commonly accepted assumption here is that, since people are looking into their phones, they must obviously be playing stupid games and filling out dumb quizzes, rather than engaging in great banter or living their life to the fullest, as we all did with such fervor only 7 years ago.
Obviously none of these assumptions can necessarily be held as true. We wasted just as much time in past years as we do now. Before smartphones we had cell phones, before those we had tamagotchis, before those we had discmans and walkmans, and before those we still had trashy magazines, as so on and so forth. We always found a reason to be "anti-social". Case in point:
We all choose to use smartphones because they increase the choices we have in life. We can choose whether or not to install said game or app, and we can make full use of the ones we do decide to keep.
In fact, I would venture to say that a greater sign of our dumbing-down times is how we recreate the same tired arguments every time a new disruptive type of technology appears. In comparison to the Phone, Telegraph or TV, the smartphone is a rather small step, all things considered, and yet we still believe it will be the downfall of society. Well, I believe cynicism will bring our society down far sooner than any smart phone.
Here are some more quotes we can regurgitate for our smartphones, and how we don't have time to appreciate anything anymore (useful phrases are in bold):
http://xkcd.com/1227/
http://www.socialmedianews.com.au/was-albert-einstein-right-about-technology/
And a week or two ago, it was this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7dLU6fk9QY
Aside from the fact that the quote from the first link is apocryphal (There's an explanation here), the commonly accepted assumption here is that, since people are looking into their phones, they must obviously be playing stupid games and filling out dumb quizzes, rather than engaging in great banter or living their life to the fullest, as we all did with such fervor only 7 years ago.
Obviously none of these assumptions can necessarily be held as true. We wasted just as much time in past years as we do now. Before smartphones we had cell phones, before those we had tamagotchis, before those we had discmans and walkmans, and before those we still had trashy magazines, as so on and so forth. We always found a reason to be "anti-social". Case in point:
We all choose to use smartphones because they increase the choices we have in life. We can choose whether or not to install said game or app, and we can make full use of the ones we do decide to keep.
In fact, I would venture to say that a greater sign of our dumbing-down times is how we recreate the same tired arguments every time a new disruptive type of technology appears. In comparison to the Phone, Telegraph or TV, the smartphone is a rather small step, all things considered, and yet we still believe it will be the downfall of society. Well, I believe cynicism will bring our society down far sooner than any smart phone.
Here are some more quotes we can regurgitate for our smartphones, and how we don't have time to appreciate anything anymore (useful phrases are in bold):
http://xkcd.com/1227/
No comments:
Post a Comment