This week in 2150 lab, we learned how to do a mobile journalism assignment with our Smartphones. This got me thinking about just how much technology affects our lives. After some thinking, I scared myself a little as I remembered a recent article I’d read this week about Google. (For article, click here.)
This article gave me two major thoughts: 1. Wow, this is awesome. Our society is going to be like the movies. 2. Oh, crap. We’re all going to be robots one day.
These thoughts were on opposite ends of the spectrum, yet both completely legitimate. I mean, it’s so awesome that these new Google glasses can do so much for us. Before you know it, we’re gonna have flying cars (I actually read something about these being made right now), hovercrafts, appliances that prepare food out of nothing in an instant, voice controlled housing, etc – pretty much the lives of people in movies like Star Wars or Minority Report or some other fictional society. All of these improvements in technology will make life so much easier and advance us toward multiple horizons in the future.
However, all of these improvements also add to the convenience of life. Sooner or later (rather sooner, apparently), we aren’t going to have much incentive to get up and do anything because all things can be done by the touch of a button or even easier, through the sound of our voice. This is what I meant when I thought we will all become robots – everyone will become so lazy that we’ll be like the people in Wall-E. That’s a scary thought, honestly. I also realize this is a drastic thought and that I’m thinking to the extreme, but Smartphones and tablets and gaming consoles have contributed to my thought on this already. People no longer go out and use their hands and get dirty. Kids don’t go play catch outside or even just tag for hours on end anymore; they sit inside on Xbox and scream at other kids sitting at home at their Xbox’s. People no longer have hobbies like gardening or knitting. Instead, hobbies include Twitter and Facebook.
Come on, really think about what you would be like if you had everything available for you with the sound of your voice. Do you think you’d still be the person you are today? Will we still have innovators? Will we still have dreamers? Will we still have those people that you can count on for anything and everything? Or will these types of inventions change our society as a whole?
I’m not saying that these inventions are horrible, by any means; they are wonderful advancements toward the future of our world. I’m just saying that I hope that in the future, kids still go outside to pick flowers for their moms or that they still run through creek waters to catch crawdads. I hope that in the future, adults still take time to take their families out on picnics or take walks on the beach.
All I want is for people to still take advantage of the beautiful world that God created.
The Wandering Sunflower 