Too Dependent on Technology?

[#hamler]

Technology serves one purpose and that's to make our lives easier. If we need to contact a certain amount of people, we open our E-mail, click everyone we'd like to send this information to, and click send. I noticed that just two years ago, we had a major ice storm. During that time our school had no power. Because of this our school was closed for several weeks. Schools can't even function without a working computer. When was the last time you saw a teacher writing notes on the board instead of typing it out on a powerpoint to show to class? When we come home, what's the first thing we do -- use the computer and turn on the tv. Tell me, when's the last time you actually remembered a phone number instead of scrolling through your phone looking for the number? Countries alone are run by technology. Debit cards, Stoplights, Elevators, Air Planes, Cars, and even electric pencil sharpeners.

Has technolgy really taken over our lives this much? Where we can't go 2 minutes without checking our phone to see if we have a text? Where we can't go a day or two without checking Wrestlezone forums to see if anything interesting is happening? Or can't even walk across a campus without seeing a student on the phone, laptop or listening to their iPods.

Today's people, including me, have become socially inept and too dependent on technology. Now this isn't meant to be a hate technology thread, because technology really can be awesome at times. But sometimes we take technology too seriously, and depend on it too much. If your computer breaks, don’t get pissed about it. If the Internet goes down, it’s not the end of the world. If your phone is fucked up, don't kill yourself. Try to see how long you can go without using technology. This leads to the discussion questions:


How long can you "survive" without technology?

Are we too dependent on technology?

Can a society fuction this day in age, without technology?



And as always, here's a pic for the troubles

Spoiler

Discuss this shit.

EDIT-I never would've thought to put this in the Video Games and Technology forum. Move if necessary.

 

[Slyfox696]

Technology serves one purpose and that's to make our lives easier. If we need to contact a certain amount of people, we open our E-mail, click everyone we'd like to send this information to, and click send. I noticed that just two years ago, we had a major ice storm. During that time our school had no power. Because of this our school was closed for several weeks. Schools can't even function without a working computer. When was the last time you saw a teacher writing notes on the board instead of typing it out on a powerpoint to show to class? When we come home, what's the first thing we do -- use the computer and turn on the tv. Tell me, when's the last time you actually remembered a phone number instead of scrolling through your phone looking for the number? Countries alone are run by technology. Debit cards, Stoplights, Elevators, Air Planes, Cars, and even electric pencil sharpeners.

Has technolgy really taken over our lives this much? Where we can't go 2 minutes without checking our phone to see if we have a text? Where we can't go a day or two without checking Wrestlezone forums to see if anything interesting is happening? Or can't even walk across a campus without seeing a student on the phone, laptop or listening to their iPods.

Today's people, including me, have become socially inept and too dependent on technology. Now this isn't meant to be a hate technology thread, because technology really can be awesome at times. But sometimes we take technology too seriously, and depend on it too much. If your computer breaks, don’t get pissed about it. If the Internet goes down, it’s not the end of the world. If your phone is fucked up, don't kill yourself. Try to see how long you can go without using technology. This leads to the discussion questions:


How long can you "survive" without technology?

Are we too dependent on technology?

Can a society fuction this day in age, without technology?



And as always, here's a pic for the troubles

Spoiler

Discuss this shit.

EDIT-I never would've thought to put this in the Video Games and Technology forum. Move if necessary.

It's not that we cannot survive without technology, it just makes things easier, freeing up more time for us to do more things. And as for your school thing, I don't think you were out of school because teachers couldn't use technology, I think you were probably out of school because there was no lights and no heat, and that's dangerous for kids.

As far as people being socially inept, there has always been socially inept people. The Internet has actually given those people a chance to interact in a way they have never had before, which I feel is a good thing, not a bad. I don't think we are "too dependent" upon technology, we instead just relish in the comforts it brings.

How long can I survive without technology? Well, obviously, as long as I want, but why would I? Like I said, technology makes life easier and more enjoyable. I think that's something we should be happy with, not worry about.

 

[The Crock]

No, we're not too dependent on technology, not at all. Just like you said, technology is meant to make our lives easier, so why not? In today's society it is all about getting things done, and if technology helps you to get things done, I don't see a single reason as to why I shouldn't use it. Also, to blame the fact that there are socially inept people out there on technology is just asinine. Like Sly said, there have ALWAYS been socially inept people, but there always hasn't been this much technology. If anything, technology makes some people BETTER socially. If some people can't get friends because they struggle talking in person then why not make friends on the Internet? I've seen plenty of poster on here who credit the Internet for helping them make friends, so it seems as if technology if pretty useful to them. Lastly, could I survive without technology? You're damn right I could. It's not hard to make it without technology, the only issue is why would I? Like I said, technology makes life easier, it's a luxury... Why take that away?

 

[Remix]

Sly you are wrong about how reliant as a society we are on technology. It's not the internet that shows it best, it's the things you don't even think about that you're reliant on. Walk to your local shop and think how much harder your life would be without technology. For a start you wouldn't be able to pay by card, and would have to go to the bank to pay by cash, which would be bareable but highly inconvenient. Then there's the food on the shelves. Chances are they'll have been grown with chemical fertilisers (which need technology to be made), and then processed by machines.

Now lets go to the pharmacy. The pharmacist's labeling system will be computer based and he may have your medical history on his computer too, and then there's the sheer amount of technology that goes into each and every tablet, capsule, suspension, solution, suppository, enema, eye drop and inhaler. There is no way to produce new drugs, and sufficient quantities of old drugs for that matter without technology.

And that neglects how modern science would grind to a halt (how will scientists in Munich cooperate with their colleagues in Melbourne without the internet?) and how the banking system would collapse too (high speed trading (a recent technique reliant on technology) makes up 70% of all trading in shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange).

Sly, it's gotten to the point where technology is now doing things that people are either unable to do, and in that respect we do rely on technology.

 

[Arkham Noir]

I think like everything, there are some people who are too dependant. The thing is though, these people are usually incompatent to begin with. I only view it as a problem when people become immersed with things. Like video games or the internet. Even than though, it depends on how it affects the rest of the persons life. If they can get by regardless, than it makes no difference.

But as stated , technology is meant to enrich people's lives. I'll use wrestling as an example. I love watching wrestling but wouldn't be able to enjoy it regularly without technology. As long as people don't give up actually talking to each other in favour of texting or only use GPS to find things, than I see no problem. As long as there is moderation.

 

[Ultra Awesome]

How long can you "survive" without technology?

It’s as Slyfox said, it’s not that we cannot survive without technology, it’s just that technology makes life a lot easier for us. In the case of the teacher having to write down things on the board; if the teacher simply using a powerpoint, he (or she) saves a lot of time because instead of having to spend time writing down the notes on the board, he (or she) already has it pre-set on a powerpoint. Thus, saving the time to write down information on the white board; and now all he (or she) has to do is explain the information

But this is just school related. When relate technology to our everyday life, it’s easy to see that technology has in fact ade our life so much easier than once before. For example, when you need to look up information on an article, [I assume] back in the old days you would have to go to your local library or local book store to find the information you were looking for. However, with a computer at home, all you have to do is go to Google, and search the topic and Bwahlah---you have found what you were looking for.

Technology makes our life easier, this is a given. Unfortunately, with technology making our life easier, there arose a problem.

Are we too dependent on technology?

This is the problem I was leading to. The problem with society today is that at least 75% percent of the population inhabiting the United States have relied way too much on technology. It's even gone to the point where technology has made them lazy prick who do nothing more than sit around eating and using some kind of technology based software. Your average teenager spends most, if not all of his time doing something technology related. Whether it be using the computer, using their I-Pod, or playing videogames---these kids do nothing more than stuff like this.

Now, of course this is mere entertainment and shouldn't do any harm to anyone; but the problem is that these forms of entertainment has gone as far as to make the lazy. Think about it. A good amount of the US population is overweight. The aimple reason is because these people don't get the exercise that their body requires. And why don't these people get the exercise they need? Because they're to busy sitting on the couch eating chips and watching TV. Of course, when one eats too much junk food, it's only obvious that they willl be getting fat; but the fact that rather than do exercies, they spend their time sitting on their butts hurt them and ultimately contributes to them not doing enough exercise.

But this is just the affect technology has on us when regarding ones health. There is much more dangers that relying on technology can cause someone.

And this of course, is affect the person socially. As I stated, the average teenager spends most of their time on the computer (etc). Now, by doing this, they neglect the real world activities such as being social, communicating with people in the real world, and most of all experiencing the great outdoors. The average teenager is too shy to speak to a common stranger let alone to a group of people. It's to the point where the term, "socially awkward" comes to surface. When people are socially awkward, it means that they are not able to communicate properly with other people. Either they are too scared or they are too shy to say what needs to be said.

But it's only obvious something like this would occur if that same person does nothing but be at their house on their computer day in and day out. They don't speak to people often to develpo adequate "people skills" so they end up being socially awkward. And I believe that relying too much on technology contributes to that.

Can a society fuction this day in age, without technology?

I would say yes, but not very well. As I said, people rely too much on technology thus hurting them to be able to be social. And a great part of making a societ function is based upon being social. Even as simple as going to a restuarant. If the cashier and the rest of the staff do not know how to properly treat you, chances are you won't want to go back tht same restuarant.

As for in terms of communaction (e.g. cell phones, e-mail, etc), well in the old days they used to write letters; it wouldn't be that hard to do the same. However, what takes a letter 2 weeks to arrive, it takes a minute to send via e-mail.

So, ultimately, yes society could function without technology, but not very well. Fact is, technology makes our life a heck of a lot easier. It has become a great benefit to our daily life. However, with that said, technology also brings it's down side.

 

[Remix]

Guys, you're all thinking too small and for obvious things. Of course you can survive without your iPod. You can probably survive without your computer (unless you need it for buisness reasons). But you cannot survive without technology at a higher level than your day to day items.

Do you guys remember the "flash crash" in May? You know what caused it? One guy putting in the wrong number into a computer. One tiny error caused the dow jones to drop by 600 points. Imagine that on a global scale, and you realise how much of an influence technology has on the world.

And for another example, take the end result of the Human Genome Project. The information contained in our DNA is now easily accessible to any scientist who needs it. Now sure, if you had enough books you could contain all that information and a determined researcher could find the information he needed. But it would NOT allow for new information to be added in a timely manner. Now you might think that's unimportant. Our DNA has been the same for milllions of years. But it's not. There are new mutations added EVERY DAY to DNA databases. How do you imagine a books will be able to keep up to date with the latest information?

Accept it or not, technology has changed the world irreversibly.

 

[lenguy]

The point of technology, is like many of you said, to make our lives easier. The advancements in sciences has helped technology grow at a rapid rate over the last century. We use this technology to keep track of information. We use it as entertainment. In education.We use it to better ourselves in the work force. I was told a few weeks ago that we live in an age than in the work force, hard labor really isent required as much as knowledge. Knowledge to run all the various forms of technology that surround us in every day life. Its every where now and its only going to continue to grow more and more as time goes on.

I think when you step back and look at it we really do relying on it,in this era in human history its more of a necessity, Technology has made our lives vastly easier as opposed to 100 or so years ago. We depend on it to keep everything in motion. Can you imagine if all the computers crashed all over the world? If satellite communication was lost? GPS, cell phones would be rendered useless. If everything just suddenly stopped working we might as well be tossed back into the dark ages. Sure its possible we can live without it. But it would take a very long time for everybody to adjust.

Some people have been born and raised in an era of computers, internet, cell phones, television and much more. If they all disappeared there would be mash chaos on a global scale. But yes for the most part I agree that we tend to rely on technology a little to often. We should learn to do without it every now and then. Just because its there and it easier doesn't mean you have to use it.(unless its required by your work, of course)