Technology?

Technology?
By: Van Dwinnells

How much can technology do for us? As a country we have began to rely on it for most of our daily functions and communications. In so many ways it brings the world into our hands. We can learn from people all over the world, and in somewhat intimate ways, experience another place, or even another culture without having ever stepped foot out our door. To those that can't afford or do not have the chance to travel, to visit their families, and experience the wonders of this world, this is their opportunity. Granted I am a proponent of easily accessed knowledge, but there is a point where even the simplest local situations are being converted to digital experiences. Unfortunately, these experiences do not contain the depth of sensual information required for us to fully understand a place, its culture, and its inhabitants. Too often people within local communities are relying on such digital records to translate to a true local experience. This thereby enables us to forgo the event or activity of actually venturing out of the confines of the home and truly "live" in a community. Our unlimited access, the very tool we have created to expanding information and placing it within grasp and at our fingertips is making people more socially introverted. In the process, we are not utilizing the natural elements and experiencing the innate beauty of that which is around us more and more.

For thousands of years, we as a species have always relied on the social group and its mentality inherent for our survival. Technology is ever so granting us the ability to survive and , in a way, "prosper" without the need of social agreement, interaction, and camaraderie. We can find just about anything over the internet and even have it shipped directly to our door. Perhaps at one point, technology will enhance to the point where there is a minimal difference between our reality and the superficial one, but until then we need to recognize that as a people we still need to engage within our social boundaries and become a community thereby disregarding the heavy influence of the isolationist, egocentric, and individualistic nature of our current situation.

It is amazing that children these days are being exposed to technology at alarming rates and seem to be picking it up as if it were second language. This is a wonderful feat for humans to develop and evolve in such rapid manner. The problem I see is that we are instilling within our future generations broken values and a viewpoint that experiencing the world and being a bigger part of it, besides "liking it" or "joining a group" on Facebook. We need to pull together and create a new unified culture, even if that one is influenced heavily by technology, before our moment passes and we become a page in a history book.