Technological advancements – can’t do without them, really. I can’t imagine myself (both personal and business) without a smartphone now.
I have time management tools, tools that help me and my team organize things, apps to remind me and do various kinda nifty stuff and so on.
I have tools and gadgets that
- make me productive,
- help me connect with my peers,
- help me manage my business in a more organized and efficient way,
- and so on.
But there’s a price that I have to pay for all this. Even though I am pretty sure that I cannot think about eliminating these new technological advancements from my life, I also understand how bad technology has changed my life too.
Sorry to be a bearer of negative news – and that too on a tech blog on how technology has changed our lives in a bad way. But you know, even though the truth is bitter, it is still true.
The new face of social with technological advancements
Let’s be honest here. Do we actually realize how things have changed with the way we connect with people? Now the definition (or the meaning as we perceive) of the following words have changed a LOT:
Connect, Follow, Friend, Like
You get the point, don’t you?
Social is no more necessarily face to face on a Cafe and having a chat with your friend over a cup of coffee. It could be you sitting in front of your computer and your friend sitting in front of his/her computer and you two talking via a software (say, Skype).
You “almost” get the same feel as if you’d be sitting in a Cafe with your friend – but there’s something missing for sure.
Here we should actually embrace the positive things with the technological advancement. If there is no (technological) facility to talk to a friend who is in another country, we’d never be able to talk to people who are away.
At the same time, think of this scenario:
You are at a dinner table with 5 friends and instead of having a nice conversation face to face, everyone of you are holding your Smartphones checking emails and social profile updates.
It doesn’t matter if you use your Smartphone or a Laptop or even the Google Glass (which most people think will be “social friendly” or less distracting) – you are still ignoring your friends/family who are sitting in front of you.
I’m sure this effect cancels out the former positive thing.
Here’s a handy presentation:
The new face of lifestyle due to technology
We used to go shopping, I mean REAL shopping and purchase stuff from real stores. That’s refreshing. That makes us walk a lot, breathe some fresh air, give our eyes and brain some new colors and stuff to watch and so on.
While shopping for our needs, we also used to do good to our whole body.
Now how most of us shop? We have enormously reduced, if not totally eliminated, shopping outdoors except for things that we can’t get online.
Just as we “talk” to our friends and socialize in front of the computer, we shop in front of the computer too. Or for some, it could be a Smartphone or a Tablet or a Phablet (it could be various names, but my point is the same).
Not just shopping, but with listening to music, playing games, watching movies, reading books – everything is done either in front of a computer or by holding some device or a gadget in our hands.
And think about bloggers or online entrepreneurs who spend a major portion of their time in front of a computer.
This surely does take a toll on our health and we end up with poor eating habits, obesity, back pain, vision problems and even some sorts of unexplained illness.
How technology has changed our lives: Takeaway
I’m not scaring you here. And I’m not trying to make you a person of the 60’s or 70’s either. I know that’s not possible coz I’m not willing to drop my gadgets or stop using the benefits of technological advancements, in the first place.
However, what we all can do is put things in control – our control.
Instead of letting the gadget or a technological sophistication to control us, we must use them for our business, or comfort.
The technological discoveries, advancements, gadgets etc. are to make our lives easier. They’re here to help us. They’re here to serve us, to be more precise and not the other way round.
So we should USE them and not be addicted to them and let them use us.
That’s the point I’m trying to convey here. Agree or disagree?
Let me know in the comments about what you think on technological advancements and how technology has changed our lives in a bad way.