WHEN I WAS EIGHT YEARS OLD, I received my first Ipod, the second generation Ipod nano. The one I wrote about to Santa countless times. The one I saw commercials for every time I turned on the television. The one that became “the only thing I wanted.” When I finally received it I thought it was pretty normal, I mean my friends had one, I would admire it every time I went to the apple store, and it was the new “it item” that recently came out at stores. With these circumstances in mind, it was hard to understand why my uncle was aggregated at my dad when “Santa” gave me one from the Christmas of 2006. However, I shall always remember when my uncle stared at me, dead in the eye that day and stated,
“Don’t let that take over your life.”
I didn’t know what my uncle meant at that time, but almost nine years later I’m beginning to think he was physic of what this world has become…
Someone asked me the other day, "What do I think the 21st century will be? How do you think people are gonna look back at out time period in the future"So what do I think the theme of the 21st century will be? How do I think history will record the 21st century and be looked back on? The answer to me is the age of the ironic term“staying connected.” The age of the personal technology that has taken over us.
Being born at the end of the 20th century (I was born in the middle of ’98), I’ve seen personal technology has been evolving right before my eyes growing up and even now. I saw VHS’ become DVD’s then later Blu-ray’s. I saw my Nintendo Gameboy became a Nintendo DS. My Nintendo GameCube become a Nintendo Wii. I saw my original Xbox become an Xbox 360, and then an Xbox one. Same thing goes with my PlayStation I, II, and III. I saw my bulky Macintoshes become thin MacBook Airs. I remember my sister wanting the new Motorola Razor in 2007 become my friends waiting in line for the new iPhone 7 just this month. I saw devices becoming smaller and devices becoming more capable of doing almost anything.
Not only have I seen technology evolve personally, but how the software and social media we use on it change as well. From the rise and fall of MySpace, to the transition from AOL to Google. The creation of social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat- you know the ones that I’m guilty to admit that check on a daily, if not hourly basis.
Now, this technology that has been constantly evolving in the most in the past 15 years was supposed to make us more “connected,” but…
Are we really connected?
I feel that this century will be looked back on as the age of connection, but not real connection. You’re probably wondering what I mean. You’re probably asking me “Well if I can connect with someone thousands of miles away in my hand isn’t that ‘staying connected’?”
Well, in that sense technology has made easier to “connect,” but when I open my eyes and look, I realize that we are not as humanely close as we before, if not further apart.
An example of how I saw this was not that long ago, about a year ago during the Paris bombing attacks. My sister lives in Paris, and so when I heard the harsh news, I immediately tried to call, message, and contact her in anyway possible to see if she was safe. I received no response for hours, till I finally checked my Facebook newsfeed. I saw my sister post a geotag/location marker, created my Facebook itself, stating “Daniella was marked safe during the Paris bombing attacks.” Immediately I was relieved that my own sister was safe, but as I refresh my page, I saw that status went from that 1 like from me to over 50 likes, with the comments of her peers stating “So glad you’re safe!” or “I immediately thought of you when I heard the bad news!” I then became upset, then angry. I then realized that my own sister has been treating me like 2,000 Facebook and social media friends she has. That she couldn’t contact her own sister, but instead posted out that she was safe for everyone to see and not tell me personally… It then hit me. My sister, my own sister wasn’t longer a sister to me, but instead a social media “friend.” She was the equivalent of that random cute boy who rode my bus for a few months or that random person I met at a party one time. The same was for her as well, I was the equivalent to her as that hairdresser that sent her a friend request or that local boutique owner down the street from her. My own sister.
I was two years since she moved to Paris and though we have the resources to stay connected, we are not really connected. Over these years she would send me a photo or like a news article that was related to something she was interested it. I would email her a Buzzfeed article I found on lines of “Cool Place to Eat in Paris!” or “You Know You Live in Paris if…” and I would always share the pictures of the Eiffel Tower she took to my “friends.” Little did we ever really truly connect and type or say the words “How are you,” “I miss you,” or “I love you,” but instead we only “comment,” “like,” or “share” something the other one did or posted. Is this what such personal technology was meant for?
It’s funny that we have this technology and we use it, it’s that we let it consume us without ever using it productively. Every time I’m waiting at the stoplight I look at the people in other cars and I see time looking and focusing on their phones instead of the stoplight or even driving. We created technology ourselves and therefore we should be able to control it, but yet we let it control us.
The technology isn’t just keeping people thousands of miles away apart but has more effect on the people we see every day. Personal technology is keeping us further apart from the friends and family that normally used to see on a daily or weekly basis. It seems that the future will consist of not human to human interaction. An example of this is the first week of school this every school year. I asked my friend who her biology teacher was and she replied with “I’ll text it to you.” At that time, being one who is a prisoner in technology, I replied with an “Ok” and waited for that text to come. However, looking back on it, was it really hard for her to just tell me at that time? A one or two-word answer? Is this how attached to technology we are?
Even my school and new teaching styles are making us less connected human to human wise. My school district in high school when I was a senior started issuing computers to every student, making us use online textbooks. Our teachers are no longer lecturing us students but instead redirecting us to online videos and PowerPoints on a topic… Is no longer learning about human interaction?
One day is it possible that I won’t have to see a physical human being unless it’s on my screen. In the future it is possible that my kids will be taught by a robot, have only online friends she or he will have never physically met, and that they will never know what a physical book or newspaper will look like.
Is that what the future holds? I hope not, but it looks like we are headed in that direction. Even now I have 1,278 Facebook friends and 876 Instagram followers. How many of these people do I talk to and see on a daily basis? Probably no more than 20 of them on a good day.
But I hope that become history. I hope that this age of the irony of “staying connected” is the past. I hope that one day people will see, the whole world will see that personal technology is controlling us and taking us over. That they will look back at the evolution of this personal technology we are facing and think that we are crazy. That one day someone will want to hold a book or a person will want to receive a physical newspaper instead of notification of the news on an Ipad. That the future robot teacher will be replaced by real teachers. That a person will go out of their house, knock on their neighbor doors and ask “What is that cookie recipe?” instead of commenting and liking it on a picture the neighbor posted. That’s what I hope the future holds, a step back from this personal technology and social media that consumes us all.
But, as of now…
Does anyone know if I should get the iPhone 7?
