My argument would focus on paying attention who these arguments come from: Baby-boomers. I assume most of their reasons are because–
a) New technologies are hard, for most, to learn quickly, and
b) By the time one finally get used to this new technology, the tech has moved on to something new again.
That has to be frustrating to anyone.Baby-boomers come from the Post–World War II economic expansion ,also known as the Golden Age of Capitalism. Their struggles were different. Their "American dream" was different. They worked really hard to achieve what they got today, so the thought of changing is something hard to grasp. Even though this change is product of their hard work as well. Anyway, they are the ones who complain the most, they are the ones who watch Fox News the most, and lets face it, they are old. Nostalgia is deceiving.In spite of its shinny nickname, the life in "the golden age" was not better than life is today. Values then were not higher than today's. The world was not better then than is today: The world then was more divided than ever. Then, women and minorities enjoyed fewer rights and the average life expectancy dramatically increased today. Now, we live longer, we know more, we enjoy more and better. After the terrorist attack of Paris, Lebano and Nigeria, Mark Zuckerber, co-founder of Facebook, wrote, "A loss
of human life anywhere is a tragedy..."
"In times like this, it's important to remind ourselves that despite the
alarming frequency of these terrible events, violence is actually at an
all-time low in history and continues to decline."
"Deaths from
war are lower than ever, murder rates are generally dropping around the
world, and -- although it's hard to believe -- even terrorist attacks
are declining."
"Please don't let a small minority of extremists make you pessimistic about our future."
"Every member of our community spreads empathy and understanding on a
daily basis."
"We are all connecting the world together. And if we all do
our part, then one day there may no longer be attacks like this."
I will copy and paste Hector's article published by HuffingtonPost: (Mind some PEEPS)
Stop Saying Technology Is Causing Social Isolation
A
group of friends checking their smartphones while hanging out. Almost
everyone on the subway with their eyes fixed on their gadget’s screens. A
couple laying together in bed with their iPhones in their hands. People
with their devices up in the air taking pictures of a concert. And I
could go on. Technology, and especially smartphones, is ruining society,
making us disconnected from others, interacting with our devices
instead of with each other. Except, f** that.
Modern Living Illustration by Jean Jullien
People
like to criticize current society. Not necessarily the current society
relative to us, but the contemporary society of the time they live in. It’s just so cool to romanticize the past even if it makes us feel bad about the present.
Past times were always better. And in this age of information and
technology, in which the smartphone is so ubiquitous, it’s only obvious
to blame them for some of society’s problems. Of course, it’s perfectly
reasonable to stop and reflect on the use we give to technology and to
criticize the bad behaviors associated.
But I believe that accusing
technology (and, again, especially smartphones) of ruining social
interaction and even all kinds of experiences is, to say the least,
quite wrong and misguided. Some people would even qualify that as
pretentious, but I’ll refrain from that.
If
you have used the internet in the last years (and I suspect you have),
you have probably seen a picture on your Facebook feed or on your Tumblr
dashboard or nearly everywhere pointing out, with a sense of
superiority, how people are slaves of technology nowadays, always using
their electronic devices in public. I’m talking about illustrations like
these. Or comics like these.
Or short films like these. Or articles like these or these. Or photographic projects like these.
Again, I could go on. The world wide web is filled with all kinds of
expressive works related to this issue, probably because it’s something
people care about. But I feel that most of that content treats it using
the same premise: smartphones are ruining our lifes (at least to some
extent).
Illustration by Jean Jullien. The fun people didn’t go away — they’re here and everywhere
Everytime
I see content like that, I feel the need to express my profound
disagreement, for which I usually resort to Twitter, always ending up
wanting to say more than I could, so I decided to write this piece. Of
course, this expresses my views (and, I hope, the views of many others)
just like those authors whose works I’m commenting on, so you may
disagree with me and find that they are right and I’m not.
My
main premise is that I don’t think smartphones are isolating us,
destroying our social lives or ruining interactions. I see smartphones
as instruments
for communication. Instruments that enable interaction on ways that
just weren’t possible before, connecting us with people all around the
world, via Twitter, instant messaging or other services.
Some may say
that if you want to interact with people, you should interact with the
ones around you, and that is probably true on certain occasions. But, on
other occasions, I’m just not able to comprehend why should we be
forced to interact with those physically close to us instead of with the
people that we really want to interact with.
Is
it so bad to prefer talking with a long-distance partner using a
smartphone than with someone who does not interest me but happens to be
next to me? To prefer reading how the people you’ve followed by years on
Twitter are doing instead of making smalltalk with that friend of a
friend sitting across the subway car? Maybe you think that yes, it is
bad, that people should always prioritize physical interaction to
digital one. I disagree. Except for obvious occasions (a work meeting,
an actual conversation that is taking place between you and someone,
etc.), I think people should be able to interact with whomever they
please without being judged by people for using a smartphone to do so.
It
all boils down to letting people connect freely using the medium they
feel the most comfortable with at the moment. Maybe that acquaintance of
yours hasn’t gone talk to you because she has had a bad day and just
wants to relax checking her Instagram feed or listening to some music.
Maybe your friend has taken his smartphone out of his pocket because he
has gotten a message that he needs to reply now.
Or maybe it’s just that
he feels a bit uncomfortable and is using his phone to try and avoid
the awkwardness of the moment because he has social anxiety and you
should respect that. And yes, maybe, maybe some people are using their
smartphones while they objectively shouldn’t without any possible
excuses and they’re jerks (or they just made a mistake and didn’t
realize taking their phone out would make someone upset), but I think
it’s really unfair to assume everyone or nearly everyone who uses a
smartphone in public does that.
Photo by John Blanding tweeted by Wayne Dahlberg.
It’s trying to convey the idea that this woman is enjoying the
experience more than the other people taking photos or recording. I’m
not sure those people are really enjoying it less because of their
smartphones
Part
of the commentaries I’ve seen criticizing this whole issue also touch
on social media, since it is so integrated with our usual smartphone
usage. For example, I see lots of people complaining about people who
take pictures of the food they order at restaurants for posting them on
Instagram or wherever. I don’t get that. Is it wrong to create a
permanent memento of an otherwise temporary experience, to capture in a
photo the work of the people back in the kitchen who made an effort to
make the food look attractive? To me, those complaints allude to a lack
of understanding of how modern social media works.
I think Tumblr user zmizet expresses this very accurately in their comments
on the Jean Jullien illustrations that I’ve used here. On that exact
topic of taking photos of food, zmizet expressed the following:
I’m happy seeing my friends take photos of their food.
I like taking photos of my food. Because there is a chef in the back of
the kitchen who works hard to plate things beautifully and in any other
situation, people dive in immediately and ruin that image. We take
photos to preserve that image and who the (peep) knows, if I was the chef I
would be digging through instagram hoping to see my plate on there.
We’re celebrating someones hard work, work that is generally temporary.
And I agree with that. zmizet concludes:
Technology
isn’t bad. You’re just upset with yourselves for having a lack of
self-control. You hate that people connect through technology. And
maybe, you just don’t like seeing people love themselves, enjoy life,
and feel joy. That’s your problem, not technology’s.
Social
media itself is also not bad. It doesn’t make us more socially
isolated. Quite the contrary, it expands our social network, as shown in
this report by Pew Research Center which concludes:
Compared
to those who do not use the internet, most people who use the internet
and use a social networking service, such as Facebook, MySpace, or
LinkedIn, have social networks that are about 20% more diverse.
It
dates back to 2009, when social media wasn’t as big as it is now, but I
firmly believe it still stands correct today. I’d also like to point
out this key paragraph:
Newer
information and communication technologies provide new settings and a
means of communication that independently contribute to the diversity of
people’s social networks.
Social
media, and smartphones for that matter, only contributes to make our
social experiences richer by connecting us with people in new ways. I’m
sure many of you have met lots of interesting people. I sure have.
Thanks to social media, I’ve been able to meet people that are now close
friends of mine.
And when I’m out, I like to open Twitter and check how
they are, what they are doing, if I have something to say that may
interest them. Heck, I even met my girlfriend on Twitter years ago. And
I’m absolutely certain that my experience is not an isolated one, as the
research above shows.
Popular image of nearly everyone on the train reading the newspaper instead of talking with each other decades ago
Other
frequent topic appears to be one I’ve already mentioned. People using
their smartphones on the subway, the bus or the train.
This is shown in
the illustration used at the beginning of this writing or in the comic I
referenced above. This is probably the one I get the least. What else
could people do? What would they do if smartphones didn’t exist? Talking
to each other?
Let’s not fool ourselves. People in general do not like
to interact with strangers in these contexts. They didn’t when
smartphones were far from existing; they just used another object
instead, like a newspaper. In response to the vignette next to this
paragraph, Tumblr user bogleech commented the following:
OH MAN look at those ignorant, pathetic people of various ages, sexes and ethnic groups all doinginternet(Peep) on their phones while they ride on a subway! HOLY (PEEP) THEY’RE ALL DOING IT! EVEN THE GUY IN THE TURBAN FROM WHATEVER THE HELL VAGUE COUNTRY HE’S SUPPOSED TO BE FROM THAT HAS TURBANS!
WHY
ARE THEY MESSAGING ESTABLISHED FRIENDS AND FAMILY ON A PHOENEZ WHEN
THEY COULD BE INTERACTING WITH COMPLETE AND UTTER STRANGERS ON A GROSS (PEEP)ING SUBWAY CAR
HOW DARE THEY HAVE PERSONAL OUTLETS AND PRIVATE SPACE AND (PEEP).
The
person who wrote that was clearly really passionate about this topic.
And well, I think that, although violently, they deliver the message I’m
trying to convey here.
They also went on to say:
DIGITAL
TECHNOLOGY OVER JUST THE PAST DECADE HAS CONNECTED AND EDUCATED MORE
HUMAN MINDS THAN PROBABLY THE ENTIRE SUM OF OUR PLANET’S HISTORY
IT’S
ALSO A MIRACULOUS FIRST-WORLD PRIVILEGE THAT ALLOWS YOU TO MAKE
FRIENDS, SHARE YOUR IDEAS, LEARN NEW THINGS, HEAL EMOTIONAL WOUNDS
THROUGH SOCIAL INTERACTION, FIND ESCAPE FROM ABUSIVE SITUATIONS, FIND
NEW LIVING SITUATIONS, APPLY FOR JOBS, CREATE YOUR OWN PERSONAL OUTLETS
AND GENERALLY PURSUE HAPPINESS AT THE TOUCH OF A DAMN BUTTON
You don’t have to take their word for it. There are studies that back up all of that like this one or this one.
Illustration by Jean Jullien. Is it so bad to have the ability to not be alone using our phones?
In conclusion,
I think we need to stop thinking technology is ruining everything,
making us a slave to it, mindlessly using our smartphones all the time.
It is not. It is enriching our lives, connecting us to the people that
matter the most to us regardless of how far away they are, connecting us
to all kinds of people whom we wouldn’t have met otherwise.
So, stop
feeling superior for making fun of other people because they’re using
their smartphones, stop pretending our lives and society would be better
without them, stop blaming technology for natural human behaviors. If
you see an image like the ones I referenced here, the ones trying to
show how we are “letting technology ruin social interactions and pleasant experiences”, stop and reflect on why
people are actually using their electronic devices.
Furthermore, stop
romanticizing the past, believing life was better without all of this
ubiquitous technology like in some form of “neo-ludism”. Consumer
technology is good. It enables us to connect in amazing ways as humans.
It is not replacing real interaction. It is augmenting it. Embrace it.
All
of the rights of the images used in this article belong not to me but
to their original authors, referenced and linked below each image.
