I don’t think all new technology is necessarily a good thing. I may be wrong though, or perhaps it’s just my depression making me unexcited about everything.
There’s a new iphone released seemingly every year, better than the last I hear, and it’s like, upgrade from your current iphone, which you just bought last year, to the new one. Which iphone are we on now, the iphone 8? Anyways, I don’t care for all that. The phone I currently have, I’ve had for two and a half years now. The last phone I had, I had for four years. So I’ve had just two phones over the last six and a half years. I don’t need all the apps and special features etc.
My dad’s family got my twin brother and I a drone for Christmas, even though neither of us like drones and I myself have said roughly a million times the past however many years how much I despise drones. I said I’d sell it and use the money to feed a homeless camp, so they asked for it back and I gave it back. I just don’t get the fascination around drones. Everything they can be used for, there’s already a technology for it. Taking pictures? That’s what cameras are for, and even our cellphones are now cameras. Recording videos? Again, our phones can do that. You want to pilot a drone so you can view your city from the air? Well I know if I wanted to view Seattle from high up, I’d go to a park at the top of a hill, or go on a day hiking trip in an area with great views of the Salish Sea area below. If I wanted to be a pilot for a day, I’d go to a municipal airport and pay money to take flight lessons.
I don’t like selfies, or selfie sticks for that matter. For one, I think selfies are kind of narcissistic. If you’re with friends, or wanting to take a cute picture with your partner with the Eiffel Tower in the background, I think there’s something special about asking a stranger to take your picture. By asking someone else to take your picture, that other person becomes a part of your life for a moment in time. The person taking your picture gets to know that they helped capture a special moment in someone else’s life. In a way, when someone takes a picture for you, society is coming together. One person is helping another person. It’s an act of kindness, it’s love.
Even with addressing climate change, it’s often depicted as if we’re waiting for some new technology to save us, when if we’re being completely honest, we already have all the technology we need to address climate change. Cut emissions from transportation? We don’t need new fancy electric driverless cars or Elon Musk’s Hyperloop, we just need to invest in light rail, dedicated right of way bus service, protected bike lanes, high speed rail and other forms of public transit. Reducing the urban heat zone effect in cities? We don’t need too much new technologies like solar and wind and hydro and geothermal power, we just need to plant trees to provide shade and grow vine on the outside of buildings, thus reducing by 90% the energy used for heating and cooling, while also sucking up CO2 and creating oxygen, which cities lack. I could go on with this.
With increasing food production to address world hunger, we’re led to believe we need new technologies to grow food, such as GMO’s. In truth, permaculture, agroforestry and aquaponics all produce much more food per acre than animal agriculture/GMO farming while also being sustainable and local. We don’t need to cut down more forests for food production, we just need to set up community gardens in every neighborhood so communities can feed themselves.
With love and dating, we don’t need new types of dating such as online dating or TV dating shows like The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, Dating Naked etc. What we need is a society where we aren’t so swamped with jobs or school that we have no time for social bonding. We need a society where we are honest and kind and respectful to each other, so that nobody gives up on love because they are scared of getting hurt, whether it be emotional, spiritual and/or physical pain.
With solving conflict, we’re led to believe violence solves everything. That a misbehaving child needs to be spanked, that police need better armor and guns, that we need new advanced military technology like predator drones and new aircraft carriers and precision guided bombs etc. The way to solving conflict, to peace, is non-violence. By communicating and using methods of social shunning. We don’t need new tools of death, we need no tools of death.
At least for me, I feel less human when I use my phone to text someone. I almost feel like a robot when I’m on social media. I would rather write hand written letters to people I care about then text them. The one new technology that does actually get me excited are those wingsuit things, because you get to actually fly through the air like a bird, which makes it okay to me because it is a way to connect with nature. So yea, in the end, lots of new technology feels very alienating to me, yet everyone else gets all excited about it. I’m probably just behind on the times though, raining on everyone’s party because of depression.
adamkendall2 