Living the past couple of days without my laptop has given me loads of time at my disposal. The first few hours without it were spent in frustration and anger. Then came the tortuous and agonizing wait for it to get repaired. And this led me to the question, are we dependent so much on technology that we probably can't expect to live meaningfully without it?
I take pride in calling myself one of the 'impatient generation'' or a self proclaimed 'geek god'. the first thing that I do when I get up is check my mail on my phone through our wi-fi connection, I get my news through my google reader, I almost totally shun non-interactive media like TV. I sometimes wish my mom and dad were more net savvy than they are now, so that we could just chat up anytime than calling each other up ( my dad already has a Gtalk and orkut account), I can't wait another day for 3G to be introduced in india coz my fring connection is not supported over my gprs which puts me out of touch with my chat buddies while I am commuting which is on an average 20 mins per day. I don't like standing in lines to pay my bills, so I pay my power bill online using my credit card (add-on courtesy dad), my phone bill payment is even easier, its done through my m-check, and yes my music, since I dont have the moolah to buy the latest sony wired player, I am making do with my e 63 over my bluetooth headset, and how could I forget what has led to all this, microsoft windows 7 ( which btw ankita is advising me to sue) which was responsible for crashing my computer and setting me back by quite a lot. Infact Paro is of the opinion that all this happened coz of me trying too many things and I chided her for speaking like my dad.
And now that my laptop wasn't around it just made me wonder how pathetically I have become a slave of technology and how much it has changed my life (and I am sure there are thousands like me throughout the world).
I remember how as a young kid, I happily chatted with people thrice and even four times my age whom I met on several of the train journeys. And now, I am content with my earphones in my ear, oblivious to the world outside. And I am definitely not an exception, there are hundreds like me who I see everyday in Delhi Metro...so much for being a 'connected' generation. We say technology is helping to bring down barriers, that it is making the world flat, the question that we need to ask, is it really??? Or is it raising walls taller than the physical one that once stood in the city of berlin, I feel more 'connected' with people hundreds and thousands of miles away, but wonder why the middle aged lady sitting next to me in the metro cant just mind her own business.
Where are we headed, is this world just going to become a huge elevator, where all of us despite being so close physically just ignore each other's presence and avoid eye contact. Since when did pretending that people around don't exist become good manners???
P.S. This blog entry was written on my phone with my earphones firmly in place, while on my way to collect my laptop from Nehru place, with the autowallah trying to make himself heard.
P.P.S. In all probability all these would be forgotten when I get busy with my laptop and my all too important digital life, but in case any of this strikes a chord, do share ur views.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
A few pointers:
1. I want you to sue Dell (which represents Big Business). You can't sue a corp over a Beta Software. It's all there in the privacy policy etc etc etc. But since you are an inaccurately self proclaimed "Geek God" you already knew that.
2. I'm pretty sure many of us, we of the "Connected" generation, would rather listen to Himesh Reshammiya (the nasal one, not that I listen to either, but that's besides the point) on our various musical devices than answer the uncomfortably personal questions posed unavoidably by the friendly middle aged aunty from Rajouri Garden next to me in the Metro. It happens.
Well written and the point is clear:Is technology really helping us ? Your concern is also well defined and most of us who actually try to "think" about social issues like you actually come about these dilemnas.You also bring your life experiences into the discussion which makes one feel that Yes,this happnes with me too.However these issues must not left to mere simple discussions or your view points.There is a huge scope for making all of us aware about the complexity when we deal with emerging technologies or emerging innovation.
The solution to these kind of issues is not really simple but one can understand them better through good theortical models.Often there are discussions but lack of theoritical models makes the discussion quite simple thus leaving the complexity behind.We are therefore left with nothing but with useless discusisons.Here is a good link(May be you know it before).Eric Von Hippol has extensively written on it.
http://web.mit.edu/evhippel/www/tutorials.htm
This actually could also be useful in understanding issues in a better way which you mention in your blog.
Actually producers,users and institutions collectively shape the development of new technologies.Each of the actors have their cognitive model of understanding technological change.The interactions between the actors according to respective cognitive understanding of technology shapes the future development of technology.Technology itself also constrains and enable different interpretations about the technology.In case the technology is not able to meet the general expectations then the actors may change their technological frame and cognitive model of understanding of the technology to a new understanding of the technology.Technological evolution also enables users to understand different uses of the technology.
Users also have different interpretations of the technology and this also leads to variation in the development of the technology by comapring their interpretations with the exisitng technological frame and by comparing with users who have a different understanding of the technology.Users can be in a good position to actually decide how should a technology develop according to their understanding of the technology.(Kaplan et al,2008)
We are actually still not able to figure out how these emerging technologies are affecting our social life or how we are shaping these technologies through our own understanding ?
Technological constrains change the development of these technologies but we as users also change the development of technologies.You can also see it how we as users are also developing and evolution of new technologies through your own experiences.
This can also a good starting point for more discussions.
whoa! i wanted to read 1 blog and ended up reading 2 :D ....
i agree at times... i get sick of myself when i listen to music on the way home in the bus, i get sick at times at how i do not laze while watching TV. with increasing user interaction, we might expect another blog in the future mulling over the nostalgia of web browsing...as bob dylan says, "times, they are a changing"
Well written. Nice blog :)
-Shashank
Thought provoking[:)]
Post a Comment