Everyday, our lives are slowly being run by technology. Since the development of the computer, they have become more affordable and easily accessible to everyone. Cell phones have become a neccesity for almost every person in a household. Mobile devices have become so advance that you can share the moment with friends by sending videos or photos to each other. The way of watching television has even changed with the development of DVRs. There is no reason to ever miss a show. And if you do (depending on the show), you can download it from online sites such as iTunes. School campuses are filled with students with headphones listening to their MP3 players. The list goes on and on.
The fear is that if we get so used to having all this technology, what will happen when it shuts down and fails? Developers have been finding new ways to create fail-proof solutions so that we can continue these lifestyles without missing beat. But will we know what to do when it isn't fail proof? Many businesses are highly dependant on computers or some sort of technological device. Some more high-tech than others with WAN infrastructures that can give up to date information and others merely using technology to ring up a sale. Would companies still run if a network shuts down? Not really. I have experienced a situation when the email server shut down at work, and no one knew what to do. Everyone came out of their cubicles and began interacting with each other face to face until the server came back up. Those who were unaffected was the manufacturing department who did not need the use of a computer to do their job. You would think that something like email would not have any effect, but it does. Cell phones used to be kept as an emergency tool, but now they are replacing land lines and becoming primary ways of communication. We panic if we don't have our cell phone with us "just in case" something happens. But people were able to deal with emergency situations before cell phones came about.
It is just interesting to see how our afraid we are when we use to not have any of these things at all. After reading Everyware, it just kind of made me think about what would happen if it all went away. I appreciate how much the technology has advanced and happy to be able to be a part of it. I just wonder if one day, it is going to go too far with the plans and developments of integrating technology into simple everyday things.
3 comments:
I kinda like the point you bring up. I doubt there are many inventions who 's creator even thought user dependancy would happen. The computer wasn't invented so that one day we would not function without it. The cell phone wasn't created for the need for it. Yet then, we apply the desire for objects to technology. Advertisers make them needed, and we desire them, and we become dependent. They ease everday activities, suddenly the idea of walking a mile is ridiculous, even riding a bike that far is questionable...why not drive? Why send a letter when you can send an email? Why go to work, or even have an office for work, when you can network across the globe from home? It is interesting to think how an item evolves from luxury to necessity. If you ask a person what they would do without their cellphone, I'm sure they would say it would suck, but they would cope. Ask a nation instantaneously, and you have panic. Will this fear guide technoligical advances? Or will we simply forward like we always have? Negating the possible outcomes. Negating the negatives for the positives.
I feel that with the way our society runs that we will in no way be back stepping this technology. I feel that if anything, everything will become more fool proof with less flaws. If the idea of everyware takes place then I think that it would be running without many flaws. The more our generation tinkers and invents technology the better it gets. Cell phones started out as big boxes with dropped calls and a huge phone to you're face. Now cell phones fit in the palm of your hand with rarley a signal loss. I am a true believer that technology will be taken to extremes that the author of everyware never thought about and so fool proof and well designed that we cant even imagine. I believe that as technology grows in this world, the flaws and glitches will lessen.
Technology, it allows us so much yet constrains us to it at the same time. Such is the nature of the beast; anything one creates becomes a part of teh one one who created it, and vice versa. The creator and created can not be seperated, they are inexollerably linked together. So, my point is this: we own technology and it owns us. When it breaks or fails we might stand around for a while and wonder what the hell to do but we eventually overcome our initial inertia and figure out a way around, through, or over the problem; that's where technology came from any way, our desire to solve the problem.
Post a Comment