I’m really interested in the question of whether technology changes our lives, or whether we change technology to suit our lives. I thought the most interesting part was about how we’ve become less communal and spend more time on our own, whatever the technology being used. I never really thought about the fact that almost every home has a washer/dryer now. It would make more sense to use them communally, but then I can also understand why people wouldn’t want to; it even makes me feel a little gross to know that someone else’s dirty clothing was in the same place mine is now.
I absolutely can’t picture sharing a tv with other houses though. I can see why it became a very solitary activity. Especially when everyone wants to watch something different. It may not have been a problem in the early days of television, but now there are zillions of channels, not just a few major networks.
I think one of the other problems with communal, energy-saving use relates to Steven Kern’s argument. “The technologies passed on their instancy and speed to the users”. The technologies sped up our lives, and we don’t like to do the waiting that is required to use a community dryer. We want everything to be instant, which relates to the trend toward faster technology now. Really it applies in many aspects of daily life. In this day and age, everything has to have immediate gratification. I want it here and now, even if waiting would be more rewarding in the long run. I say, not everything is supposed to be so easy. There’s nothing wrong with waiting, even if it is inconvenient. What’s a little inconvenience once in awhile?
26 February 2007
Instant Gratification and Laudromats
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4 comments:
Waiting? Who wants to wait? This is almost the entire reason for the creation of Technology, to help simplify life and to eliminate "waiting". I just recently read a book that was almost ENTIRELY about a bunch of people trying to think of better ways to eliminate the "wait" of communication, it's called The Victorian Internet. I hate inconvenience, and unfortunately so does almost everybody else in this world. But because of this reason, new technology is always being created or invented, to speed things up or to simplify life. I guess you could also say that a lot of technology is created for entertainment purposes as well, but the main drive is usually to remove any inconveniences from our lives. Takes too long to deliver a message from town to town on foot? Invent a telegraph. Telegraph a little tedious to read and write on? Invent a Telephone. A little hard to broadcast news and other public info on the Telephone? Invent a radio. A little inconvenient for listeners to not be able to picture what’s going on from audio? Invent a television. And so on and so forth. All of these HUGE technology stepping stones were created to make life a little less convenient. I’m sorry, I don’t want to sound like I’m just attacking your argument about having to wait because I do agree with you when you say that. I think we should all do some waiting in our lives, but in our present, it would probably be a quick wait.
New technology is created making older technology cheaper and more available to the public. Our advancement in technology helps cut down on time and effiency as well as lead the way to newer hroizons. The fact of using the communal washer/dryer as an example is based on price reduction for the landords or people who just cant afford the price of buying a washer and dryer straight up. Inconvenice is what technology tries to eliminate. If we wanted inconvenicence we would not demand change. Of course people would be exstatic if luandry could be done in 3 seconds instead of 2 hours.
I agree with kelly. Some of the most important lessons i have learned so far in life have been due to the most tediously long and hard work i have ever done. Most of the time it is more the journey that you learn from then the actual accomplishment.
Everything is becoming faster and easier, but sometimes the easiest route is not the best. To take the road less traveled may take longer, but it will get farther in the end. The spread and speed of technology isn't the problem, it is those who depend too much on technology and lose out on the experiences of life.
Sure convience is a major factor in innovation. This is due to the imediacy and speed we crave. Why do we crave speed and immediacy? Its evolutionaly encoded. We live in a modern civilization and cannot survive without it. This is a natural progression of events set forth thousands of years ago. Its natural. but just because it comes natural does not mean it doesnt warrant opposition. Take painting. From the Renaissance, all painters desperately wanted to learn the best "optimal" technique of representation of 3d on 2d plane. But with time, some new ideas were allowed to enter the galleries of the high-art Acadamie. starting with say Cezanne. Once the knowledge of how to paint "perfectly" was so widespread and easily accessable it lost some of its desire...Cezanne diverged, and chose to paint freely from memory. This was a bold step to take because no one else was doing it--it was not the profitable and popular technique in painting. Without it art and life today would be completely different. But this too can be seen as a natural occurance. His choice reflected a greater social issue, many artists from this time were having these thoughts, he was just one major player on the field. This is just one tiny example of many found in history. But I agree with Gabi the most, Technology is not the problem, it is just one aspect of a multitude of problems in modern living. We're slowly missing more and more of the primal experience of life, while simultaneously simulating those with new experiences that fit conveniently into our daily lives. A natural process. Whether that be good or bad is for the user to interpret and evolve from; but we should certainly know what it is we are interpreting.
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