Slashdot Mirror
Do Gadgets Degrade Our Common Sense?
ShelleyPortet writes "In a world where gadgets are growing more sophisticated, human behavior is changing — and not in a good way. That is what Robert Vamosi, author of When Gadgets Betray Us argues in his book, which examines the dangers of our growing dependence on technology. As gadgets develop the ability to multitask seemingly endless functions, Vamosi argues that people are increasingly unable to think for themselves. 'Instead of lifting our heads, looking around and thinking for ourselves,' Vamosi writes, some of us no longer see the world as human beings have for thousands of years and simply accept whatever our gadgets show us."
some of us no longer see the world as human beings have for thousands of years and simply accept whatever our gadgets show us
And how did the human beings see the world before? Yes, only the area they lived on. The culture, and the religion. They heard and saw what dictators, politicians and religious persons told them. It was a very far off from the reality and it still shows today with religion. I rather hear things from everyday people. Theres a lot of information and knowledge that would never come out of "official" channels. Or with todays technology I can travel the world myself and see those things. Yes, some people will never use that opportunity. But at least now it's possible for everyone and everyone can make their own decisions instead of some religion telling you what to do.
Yes, I've traveled to Asia and even had sex with shemales there. I'm thinking of marrying an asian woman, which seems to be a problem for the religious types in my family tree but not for anyone else. And that would had been completely out of possibility in communitys where religion tells you it's "immoral" to have sex before marriage, or hell, make all of their women wear clothes that can't even show their faces. Gadgets, internet and the technology in general has allowed me too see different parts of the world myself, and hear things from a lot of different kinds of people. It has also opened my mind and made me question the stupidity that religion is and like this article tries to imply, controlling information so that only a few persons can express their opinion.
The point is, most people didn't think on their before either. They followed what someone else in power told them - be that their parents, religion or their country. Now there's at least the possibility to choose.
They just broadcast it to the world now and make it very obvious.
"I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
Maybe some people are getting mentally 'lazy'. I guess they could have said the same thing about all of the technology developed during the industrial revolution. I know that I'm certainly less apt to cut my grass "by hand" now that I have a nice power mower ... and that car sure comes in hand when I don't feel like carrying stuff home from the store.
Fundamental laws of physics:
1. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
2. Energy and momentum are conserved.
3. Every new technology must have an article by somebody talking about how it's going to ruin everything.
Evidence for #3 has been tested as far back as Socrates and Plato. I have no doubt that at least some cave paintings are really an editorial about how fire is going to end the species: with fire to keep us warm, who is ever going to have sex again?
If the point of the article is to say, "Don't be an idiot"... did you really need to spread that advice over five page views?
That's what I was thinking too, that a lot of people don't know how to use maps anymore because they have GPS giving them turn-by-turn instructions. And yet, really, I think even before GPS, most people weren't really good at using maps. So maybe not much has changed; except now people who were chronically lost have a chance of finding their way.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
It is with great pleasure that I read the learned words of this amiable scholar, Mr. Vamosi. It is thus prooved that the Gadgette may be more of a threate to the mind of our Republice than the gallopping steamship or railroad loco-motive. Tell me, in what respect may the Gadgette hope to improve upon the brain given us by our creator? Did He make our human brains to be cleverer than himself, and master over Him? If ye say "No," then how can ye say that we are then so wise and skillful as to make a Gadgette to be clever than ourselves and master over us? This is as ridiculous as the old familiar question: "Can our Lord and Creator microwave a Burrito so scaldingly hot that even He Himself cannot taste of it?" Nay, presume not that the creator (whether our Heavenly master or our own intellect) can ever be led by his creation into any realm except that of the Doomed Abyss. Thus, Gentlemen of the Republice, cast ye Gadgettes into the sea -- lest they hang about they neck as a great millstone -- and drag ye down to the depths!!
This may become long and drawn out..but I am speaking from a different perspective than most I would think.
I have been a PC tech/web developer for around 15 years. I kept up with the latest gizmos and gadgets, technology and toys for a long, long time. My last stint was support at a University. My wife and I got the "get back to basics" fever, quit our jobs, bought some raw land and are homesteading 4 acres on the outskirts of nowhere.
In that change also came a paradigm shift about technology. While we have to use our laptops for our web business, more and more we are wandering away from the screens and towards the dirt. What I find is that the less time you spend with "a screen" the more you come to understand and envelope yourself with the real world..the world of dirt, the world of nature, the real world you cant touch on flickr and cant smell on facebook.
We as a society are evolving into a clinically sterile, see here is nature on the screen, whats a shovel people.
I am not arguing that technology is bad, merely making the observation that reality is changing for most people. That we as a group are living our lives more and more through screens and by dilution less and less in the sun. While the irony of me posting this here does not elude me, I will be shoveling up some garden and doing some garden work shortly. I hope you would have some real world to balance off "the screens" as well because to me, the human condition is not a clinically sterile parade of screens and gizmos.. it is about the sights, smells, grit, efforts and rewards you can only get once you run out of batteries.
Technology is a Force Multiplier.
If you're a brilliant scientist, you can use it to do even greater, more important work.
If your a tyrannical dictator, you can use to to further oppress and control your citizens.
If you're a blithering idiot you can stare at it as you plow your car into a group of children waiting for a buss.
The fact is, technology and specialization have placed us far beyond self-sufficiency at this point. You don't really know how your food is grown, how your home is constructed, how your car works, or what happens when you flip a light switch. You think you do, but you couldn't reconstruct all that from scratch if you found yourself alone on an island, not in a 1000 lifetimes. So I don't see why we would suddenly draw an arbitrary line to exclude GPS or other "gadgets."