The intrusion of technology in our lives is rapidly becoming domination. The abrogation of humanity to artificial intelligence (emphasis on “artificial”) is real and advancing rapidly.
It is alarming how much our society has become enslaved by the little screen in our hands. And I do mean enslaved. It’s no longer FOMO (the Fear of Missing Out). It’s that for some, even many, every moment of every day is monitored, organized (or disorganized), influenced or controlled by technology. It’s as if we’ve outsourced our critical thinking abilities, self-control, conduct governors, interpersonal communications, hell, our consciousness. It’s not much of an exaggeration to say that some have outsourced their SOULS.
I don’t need an “app” to monitor how much I sleep at night. I don’t need to be fed “relevant” advertising when I visit a website. I don’t want “free” stuff. The price of “free” is relinquishing personal data to an amorphous algorithm that creates a digital profile of me. That profile is used (and manipulated) in all sorts of ways, the vast majority of which are driven by the pecuniary interests of the technology company that conjured up, sorted and sold my profile to anyone who would pay for it.
Technology has permeated, or infected, virtually every form of human communication. People facing one another, looking into each other’s eyes, interpreting body language, noting inflection, giving and taking non-verbal cues, interacting with one another in the moment…are behaviors increasingly, frighteningly, diminishing. And since communication, whether incoming or outgoing, is what I would call a basic component of humanity, we are as a result becoming less and less human.
What matters is increasingly lost. Virtue is not even a word or concept in the social vocabulary – it’s an anachronism, out-of-place with life at the speed of text or email traffic. Home and hearth are Hallmark Channel themes. The importance of Family, of doing what’s right, of eschewing wrong, of telling the truth, of adhering to your word, of working hard for an honest day’s wage, of being kind, of self-discipline, of moderation, of humility, of courage, of what used to be common morality…all are for the most part either banned from the new social ether or are relegated to being quaint ideas from the past.
God doesn’t use an iPhone. Many who are tethered to them don’t believe in God anyway. Faith, a moral compass, yardsticks of right and wrong…all have succumbed to technology. Religion is thus also a casualty of technological so-called “progress”.
I admit that I too have been caught by the groundswell. Rather than stick my head out the door to decide what jacket or coat I’ll wear today, I quickly tap my Accuweather app to learn what the temperature is and whether it’ll become warmer or colder. Rather than pick up the phone and call my daughter to ask about some detail of the upcoming grandchild’s birthday party, I send her a text.
Some courageous (and seemingly more happy and content) members of my generation have deliberately eschewed technology. One of my oldest friends still uses a flip phone, and he leaves it on his dresser with a dead battery most of the time. The guy who installed the sprinkler system on our lawn 35 years ago and still services it today doesn’t use email. He carries a cell phone but never answers it. I leave him voicemails but he doesn’t listen to them…he just calls me back when it’s convenient for him to do so.
At first I was annoyed that I couldn’t reach people who had largely disconnected from The Grid, but now I’m starting to appreciate the benefits of lowered blood pressure and appreciation of what IS important that accompanies doing so.
Little by little I hope the pendulum swing towards increasing technological domination of our lives and away from humanity will swing back. It’s happened before in world history. I can hope it will happen again and we’ll all be the better for it.
P.S. I just realized how hypocritical I am for using an iPad to write this post and throwing THESE thoughts out into the social ether as well. Sigh…
