To be or...Technology?

We live in such a rapidly growing technological world. But the question that arises is; are we disconnecting ourselves from human interactions when we connect in our devices? Last night I went to my mom’s house for dinner, and the topic of conversation surprisingly enough was technology! My stepfather was explaining the “phenomenon” of posting an article to someone’s Facebook wall, “I mean, it’s really amazing. This person had somehow put an article on their Facebook!” He exclaimed, while I laughed and thought, “Is he serious?” To someone in my generation, to not know how to use Facebook is just wrong, but we grew up at a time where texting and the Internet is second nature.

“Hamlet’s Blackberry” is a book by American author William Powers. In it Powers argues that technology is making us become less personal and less connected. In his interview with Katie Couric, William Powers explains that technology is great and helpful in many ways, but information overload is very possible. His argument explains that despite our devices intentions of making us become more efficient individuals, it is making us less efficient and making us less connected to people, and more connected to our technological devices.

Throughout this interview I came to the realization that Mr. Powers made a very plausible argument. Many times I find myself not being able to hold conversations with people because I’m constantly thinking if I have a message on my iPhone. Throughout the course of writing this post, I’ve looked at my phone at least 10 times, and to me that is being too connected. Powers brings up the issue called “digital maximalism” and goes on to explain it means the more connected you are the better. On average, American’s spend 2.7 hours socializing on their phones, which is over twice the amount of time we spend eating. (Digital Buzz) We lack a sense of deeper connectivity to people, we see the people we interact with more as a text message or an email, rather than another human being. There is the ability to be personable in a text message or an email, but you can only go so far.

While researching my stance, I stumbled across an article that states, “Technology is ours alone, separating us from every other species, yet we continue to develop it to the point that we destroy a distinctly human process — communication.” (Collegiate Times) To me this was interesting. I don’t think that technology is 100% destroying our process of good-old-fashioned communication, but I do think it is putting us in a place where we will eventually lack some necessary social skills.

Are we in a “conundrum of connectedness”, as William Powers said in an interview with NPR? (NPR) Our brains are constantly adapting to meet the needs of our changing world, but it almost seems like we are experiencing information overload, and making our brains work harder to understand new information. We have mastered the art of multitasking, we can talk on the phone while still texting someone else, and checking our Facebook status.

In the interview William Powers says that technology is increasing our groupthink, so we lack our own individual thought. I would say I disagree with this, technology allows us to express who we are and express our thoughts. If anything, I would say technology increases our uniqueness as individuals. 

Now, like William Powers' argument, I think that technology is great! It has made our lives much easier and helped us get things done more efficiently and faster, that is if we stay off social media platforms.  Powers does not give an extremist pont of view, but rather a rational point of view. In my opinion, everyone can benefit from taking a little break from technology, even if its disconnecting for a few hours a day, or like William Powers suggested, the entire weekend. I think that it is time we stop Instagraming the roses and stop and smell them for a while.