I’m going to be all over the place in this blog entry, so try to stay with me…
For starters, I found the following Ancient Chinese Curse quite poignant for several reasons: “May you live in exciting times.” Individually, I feel inclined to a peaceful life—one that is not marked by long hours, competition, and high stress. However, I was born into an era where increasing technologies and globalization have made peace something to look forward to during retirement, rather than integrated into the daily lives of the general western population. We may live during exciting times, but do we live better lives because of it?
Admittedly, technologies have made the lives of individuals within the developed world abundantly more comfortable. However, with increasing access to the world around us, has our quality of life significantly increased? Undoubtedly yes… in some areas. BUT—I still find it incredibly ironic that 1) urbanization has placed so many people in such close proximity, 2) technologies have made it so that if we want to contact some one we have a plethora of resources at our disposal (call, text, e-mail, skype, facebook/myspace message, fax, etc, etc… or meet in person) and 3) we are marked as one of the loneliest cultures in history.
I guess what I’m saying is that I question some of the associations between increasing technologies and their effect on psychosocial behavior & well-being.
Will the outcomes of such breakthroughs better or worsen our quality of life? Will we become like machines, fine-tuned to be healthy and to continuously compete in the international marketplace? Or can we find a balance—utilizing technologies to better health without being consumed by the impersonal matrix of technological advancement? (Human advancement???)
Will such trends further delineate the world’s rich and poor? There are just so many questions and such heavy baggage that this topic brings to the table. Nonetheless, we cannot avoid such questions because this topic will continue to define the world we live in. We must strive to use technologies—medical, informational, communication, etc.—as a tool, rather than as an end.
4 comments:
hey david, you ask a lot of very important questions in your entry. i think at the heart of it is whether all this "human advancement" will be accompanied with a steadfast use of good old-fashioned wisdom. when i read quotes by people who lived in ancient times, what strikes me is that despite the enormous strides in knowledge we have made, their fundamental ideas about the world are still totally relevant. they showed a wisdom that is still lacking/necessary in our world today. we need people who can apply that vigorously, not just philosophically but at every stratum of society.
Hello David,
Great post. You touch on a topic that concerns me - social isolation (i.e. lack of in person /verbal human-human contact) that results from forms of communication that require no human contact. How will this affect the youth of today ? An entire generation that is growing up under conditions where this lack of contact is considered normal. Are we destined to become a densely populated, but socially isolated people ?
David, you offer a lot of interesting mateial to think about. Technology is rapidly changing the world and at times it will be for the greater good and at times it will be for worse. This is the natural progression of humankind. What may seem unnatural is just the natural progression of life, so we must embrace the bizzare and harness it for good.
yup, the invention of instant messaging has already been proven to decrease a person's ability to communicate face to face. It could potentially have negative effects if one is to isolate himself from developing a social network in real life.
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