I recently bumped into a page on Wired while working on something mundane (big surprise!), #maketechhuman. Ideally i should've spent 10 secs, looked for what I was looking for, found it, shut it, get done. Thats how tech works anyway right? Constantly helping you get things done faster, right from the Ctrl + F to Siri understanding my south indian accent (personally toh i don't have any bas kehne ki baat hain). But I froze, not because of the locks in my shoulder muscles but because this hashtag unlike most made me think.
Wired says, we know you're excited about technology, maybe you're worried. Tell us about it. I've always fiercely defended Google's strategy to collect the world's information and make it easily accessible to itself to improve our lives. I mean whats the harm right? I know, I know, will I say that when they get closer to controlling our lives in the pretext of making it easy. May be I will be worried. This is probably my version of #maketechhuman, here's what I am really worried about right now though what if technology takes up so much space in my life that I stop being human. Oh no I am not talking about saving lives or feeding the poor & hungry. I am talking about what if I slowly start to lose everything thats human about me. We are constantly looking at making our lives easier through leaps in technology. My mom can at the tap of a finger sing to my son like she was sitting next to him and be his virtual grandmother, for that I am very grateful but I also see how technology is consuming so much of our lives that we are gradually starting to lose some really basic human skills like communicating, and letting your eyes capture moments.
Have you ever stopped to think when was the last time you had a conversation about something you didn't see on facebook/twitter/linked In? Increasingly you find it difficult to have conversations for the heck of it, and we have passed on more of that to the next generation or even the younger adults in our generation. A conversation needs a purpose now, it has become a transaction. I find myself in an awkward situation every time it has to go beyond that. A pragmatic would say 'Isn't that great?' 'No more chit chatting.' What I feel we forget is that the very absence of this pointless talking is making us more lonely. Has tech helped humans connect, hell yes it has but have we? I don't think so! I always nag with the various whatsapp groups that I am a part of about the million 'funny' forwards that take up phone space and thats all there is to it. We never really converse. What about life's moments? capturing them is as important as living them and we do a great job with all the selfies, landscapes, potraits, feet on the beaches, shadows on the walls, the list just can go on. I haven't seen many that just take it easy and breathe in the few moments of vacation they get in between their sedentary lifestyles. You spend most of your time capturing these moments then you come back to see these moments as a screensaver on your desktop just to say 'I want to go back there now.' Part of me reflects the changes technology dependency has led to and part of me tries to reject that dependency. So the next time you see me making an awkward conversation or none at all while slowly reaching out to my touch screen... scream "Don't touch the screen!"
Wired says, we know you're excited about technology, maybe you're worried. Tell us about it. I've always fiercely defended Google's strategy to collect the world's information and make it easily accessible to itself to improve our lives. I mean whats the harm right? I know, I know, will I say that when they get closer to controlling our lives in the pretext of making it easy. May be I will be worried. This is probably my version of #maketechhuman, here's what I am really worried about right now though what if technology takes up so much space in my life that I stop being human. Oh no I am not talking about saving lives or feeding the poor & hungry. I am talking about what if I slowly start to lose everything thats human about me. We are constantly looking at making our lives easier through leaps in technology. My mom can at the tap of a finger sing to my son like she was sitting next to him and be his virtual grandmother, for that I am very grateful but I also see how technology is consuming so much of our lives that we are gradually starting to lose some really basic human skills like communicating, and letting your eyes capture moments.
Have you ever stopped to think when was the last time you had a conversation about something you didn't see on facebook/twitter/linked In? Increasingly you find it difficult to have conversations for the heck of it, and we have passed on more of that to the next generation or even the younger adults in our generation. A conversation needs a purpose now, it has become a transaction. I find myself in an awkward situation every time it has to go beyond that. A pragmatic would say 'Isn't that great?' 'No more chit chatting.' What I feel we forget is that the very absence of this pointless talking is making us more lonely. Has tech helped humans connect, hell yes it has but have we? I don't think so! I always nag with the various whatsapp groups that I am a part of about the million 'funny' forwards that take up phone space and thats all there is to it. We never really converse. What about life's moments? capturing them is as important as living them and we do a great job with all the selfies, landscapes, potraits, feet on the beaches, shadows on the walls, the list just can go on. I haven't seen many that just take it easy and breathe in the few moments of vacation they get in between their sedentary lifestyles. You spend most of your time capturing these moments then you come back to see these moments as a screensaver on your desktop just to say 'I want to go back there now.' Part of me reflects the changes technology dependency has led to and part of me tries to reject that dependency. So the next time you see me making an awkward conversation or none at all while slowly reaching out to my touch screen... scream "Don't touch the screen!"
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i did the best productivity hack ever - deleted FB from my iPhone.
I only do FB once a week now and no more than half an hour just to capture any good things - like this link i stumbled on.