Technology is wonderful. We know it is because we are being told so over and over again. Computers can do just about anything that we think up for them to do. We are just around the corner from making them like humans, probably with a soul and everything. As soon as we iron out a few glitches, they will drive our cars for us and never make mistakes. They will brake, swerve, and decide whether to run over the woman with the baby carriage or the Millennial computer programmer who is walking out into traffic with his nose in his iPhone, based on an irrefutable algorithm designed by . . . oops . . . a Millennial programmer. Oh well!
I'm thinking that technology, and I stress, at least the day-to-day stuff we all deal with, is actually not all that good. We think it is, as I said, because we're constantly being told that it is. This does not explain why, when you Google the string windows update failed there will be roughly 452,000,000 hits. Consider the percentage of times the card reader at the store, gas station, fast food joint, whatever, won't work properly. Really? I mean, should that happen as much as it does? In the 21st Century?? Does your cell phone work properly all the time? What is your car dashboard thinking when it finds the restaurant you asked for in Rhode Island, when you are in Missouri?
Should hackers be able to sneak ransomware onto corporate computer systems on pretty much a daily basis? Should Ford Motor Company sell me features on my new car that will only work on an app that requires I buy a new iPhone because the app requires a newer operating system than what my phone will support? Does any of this make my life better?
I think it's all marketing hype, like how social media platforms lead us to believe how awesome we are when in fact the bulk of us are stunningly average. Take my blog. Please.
I agree with all of this except the end, because I don't think social media platforms are designed to make you believe you are awesome; they are designed to make you believe that everyone else is far more awesome than you so you need to spend more time and effort looking more awesome on social media just to keep up.(I'm looking at you, Instagram!)
ReplyDeleteGood point, and it makes more sense.
ReplyDeleteI have an instagram account, but I probably don't use it like I'm supposed to!
Technology brings a raft of benefits but us mere humans are prone to normalizing things that seem to work. So we've made it seem normal for a car to require an upgraded phone, or to keep up all the time with whatever it is that people we barely know are saying to other people we barely know about yet other people we don't know at all.
ReplyDeleteThanks to my spiritual erstwhile girlfriend I'm thinking more along the lines of our JYP friend here in the sense that a little daily prayer is a lot more beneficial than all the time I spend on my stupid little device. That doesn't mean I've set a goal that I have then met. Just that I've noticed who's happy and who isn't. I could go on at length on this subject. Must be my accelerating age.
Instagram has never made me feel like keeping up. It's a place for some people I know to share pictures they took that they like (scenery, their pets (and children, whatever), their narcissistic selves). I do the same, for no logical reason beyond getting a handful of likes. Since being seen is a fundamental human need, a few likes is not a bad thing. When people start to count them and try to get more, though, that's ill.
ReplyDeletere Instagram, in which I probably have less than 100 "followers," my only interest is in posting pictures for the sake of the pictures. I'm fascinated by what people can come up with given a relatively low-resolution, square format. I also follow people who post pictures of specific locations that I like. People from New York City always come up with cool pictures . . . As an amateur photographer I like to simply find shots that look intriguing, sans fancy, expensive equipment, even if it's just something like one of my favorites, a single girl's sparkly shoe sitting atop a fire hydrant. But as you said, having an audience helps, of course. So, I know people are looking at them, occasionally commenting, which I freely admit is gratifying. I could easily live without IG, ditto with Facebook, but I would hate to give up writing and blogging, even though as far as the "social" part goes, it is the least, and with the smallest readership.
ReplyDeleteI never made an Insta after reactivating FB. It's just a waste for me because all I end up posting are pics of food and cats. What is the point? I can post pics on FB directly or my blog. Agree that tech isn't so great when there are constant ways to hack and exploit "holes" in systems. Why the hell do we need to update everything on the daily? SO irritating!
ReplyDeleteDaily update is the thing that confoozles me about running a business, including being a writer who wants to move books. Evidently you have to keep your social media (note the plural) active and alive or, or, you, um. That's where it breaks down for me.
ReplyDeleteThough if I ever finish anything and I think it's halfway good I will do all the things to get it some attention. I'd be crazy not to. But the teeny company I work for thinks it needs that too. We haven't managed it. I doubt we ever will. Or that it will matter.