Life is too connected to computers?

[ed^chigliak]

I don't know if anyone read this article http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=14073 by hexus head honcho David Ross. It's an interesting topic and I similarly try to avoid technology atleast when the weather is good. For me it's love hate relationship with computers and technology.

I suffer some pretty weird jakal and hyde swings from full on binge-gameing to full on binge-allotment gardening. One thing is for certain... I don't feel comfortable or secure with a lifestyle that is completely dependent on computers and technology. What if it all goes horribly wrong? What if the potential threat from electromagnetic pulse weapons capable of knocking out computers on a massive scale becomes a reality? What if my job can be done by robots in the future? What if everyone suddenly stops believing in money?

If something 'big' happens I certainly don't want all the tech heads down my allotment bust'in my face and steeling my cabbages. It takes alot of effort to overcome my love of computers and to get up off of my lazy butt to grow me some cabbages that are worthy of eating.

You only have to look at how crazy people were starting to get when they were feeling the effects of the UK fuel price protests to realise there is a growing problem. Long before there was any real fuel shortage the supermarkets were practically looted for groceries.

Now if only they could make a good allotment gardening video game and my printer could print cabbages I would be sorted..

[Elmo]

http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=13641 <-- been done.

[Allen]

Heh, couldn't be bothered to look it up to tell him...

[Angus]

You say how you aren't comfortable with the growing dependancy on technology.....

...and then say how you want it to produce food.

Which would make us more reliant on the technology

(ps I know you were joking)

(pps you were joking right?)

[Nick]

Well, in response to a few od the points David has made in that article, I think on the whole I disagree.

I think that the improved connectivity has only improved communication over distances. Now I can have a real time conversation with someone on the other side of the world without needing a bank overdraft for a phone call, which was the only way to do it in the past. I can send them an instant picture, or even a live video feed so they can see me as I am right at that moment, not how I looked three weeks ago.

For business, video and internet conferencing has saved time and millions upon millions of pounds in just development costs alone. Being able to discuss a formative project, suggest alteration sna offer solutions in real time, across time zones has greatly speeded up the manufacturing process.

Now you can e-mail someone, safe in the knowledge that IF you add a notication flag, you will know when they have read it. I don't believe that expectations of services are higher, in fact, I believe that services are of a higher standard purely because the increased connectivity has opened the market up to more competition.

We are no longer a captive audience whose boundaries were dictated by the papers we read, the TV channels we watched or the radio station we listened to. Now, if we want something, we go and Google for it. The local insurance broker now has to compete with the rest of the nation for my business. He can no longer rely on the Thompson or Yellow pages to bring in business for him. For the consumer, this can only be a good thing.

The problem we face is when dealing with people who have learnt to use the technology available to us but they do not understand it.

There is a crucial difference between learning and understanding, and when used with reference to digital technology, it is the key to an easier digital life or a hellish one.

For example; the person who rings you up to check whether you recieved their e-mail or not. In that one action they have totally vioded the reason for sending an e-mail in the first place. Why bother if they then ring anyway? This shows they have LEARNT to send e-mails, but they don't UNDERSTAND that e-mail is not a real time form of communication.

Another example; my company sent out a memo telling all its managers about a paper recycling scheme. The memo was sent to eveyone on a piece of A4, so that 37 sheets of paper to tell us to recycle paper when each manager has an e-mail address they could have easily sent the memo to. When questioned, the department responsible for the memo said they wanted to make sure that everyone got the memo. They even e-mailed everyone to ask if they had recieved the memo, and included a copy of the original memo in the query e-mail.

These two examples show that the abuse and incorrect use of the connectivity we enjoy is what will make that very connectivity hell unless it is respected and controlled by the people using it. You don't NEED to call to check if an e-mail has been delivered, you don't need to send paper and then follow it up with an e-mail.

The biggest barrier facing us at this time is people understanding what technology is capable of and how to make the best use of it. Couple that with a resistance to change that is inherent in every human being and the road to a trouble free, hassle free, smoothly connected world will be a long and rocky one. Its something our generation have to work at integrating seemlessly into our lives.

With luck, the day isn't far off when instead of checking your emails, voice mails and text messages you just flick on the plasma screen TV and everything scrolls across the bottom of the screen as you watch the morning news. Or your messages download into the personals section of the e-paper as it wirelessly updates to todays news subsription.

Once infrequent users begin to trust the system at their disposal and use it to its full potential, regular users, those either dependant for a living on technology or those using it as a cornerstone to their business, will start to spend less time repeating themselves, getting bogged down in double dealing with each message and everyone will start to reap the rewards of a clearer, succint and faster form of communication.