Roughly three years ago I obtained my first cell phone. I was in my late twenties and had survived with a land line up until that point. It seems a bit shocking now considering there are 10 year olds running around with their own cell phones. My cell is a very basic model with just a small screen and a flip out keyboard. I've never tried to connect to the internet with it, only sending texts and making phone calls.
Fast forward those few years and I am now in the minority. Most of my friends own smartphones. They whip out those slim, shiny devices, making mine look like it belongs in the Smithsonian or something dug up at an archaeological site. I find myself thinking of the opening scene of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey when we have our respective phones on display. When the chimps discover a black, rectangular object outside their cave they waiver in between awe and outright hostility. I won't be pummeling any smartphones with my fists or stroking them lovingly, but I have to wonder if, like the chimps, we are ready for this evolution?
Technology has seen exponential growth in the last few decades. When I was young I worked with floppy disks on a Tandy Radio Shack computer. The only colors on the screen were the classic green and black. We had dot matrix printers where the paper jammed on average every five minutes. The sound of a dot matrix needs to be experienced firsthand at least once in this life. I pity the children who grow up in a world not hearing the cacophony of sounds emitted by those hardworking machines.
The youth of today may think a floppy disk refers to a specialty item in Frisbee. And the crude green and black graphics of the game, Cosmic Fighter, would hardly capture the attention of gamers who are accustomed to full color depictions of a virtual world. But as our technology progressed has our maturity level risen to the occasion or fallen by the wayside?
Recently this was demonstrated while persons I was interacting with continued to play games or text while having a conversation. It may be that we have not yet grasped the fundamentals of functioning in a world where distractions are rife. Many societal observers have commented on this and I won't expound upon what others have thoroughly dissected.
The looming question then remains, where do we go from here? Clearly there is an insatiable need for the next gadget to hit the market. Lines of people wait eagerly for the latest generation iPhone or newest gaming console to appear on the shelves. A void, a black hole of sorts has appeared. One in which technology cannot move fast enough. The masses snatch up the next upgrade with the ferocity of a bridesmaid clawing at a thrown bouquet. But as we do this little consideration is given as to what we are allowing to take root in our society.
The great naturalist, Edward Abbey, in his book Desert Solitaire, warned of the dangers of a society that wielded new found technologies with the reckless abandon of a child. He stated that, "Technology adds a new dimension to the process by providing modern despots with instruments far more efficient than any available to their classical counterparts." He goes on to mention that most oppressive regime, Nazi Germany, "Surely it is no accident that the most thorough of tyrannies appeared in Europe's most thoroughly scientific and industrialized nation."
People in America are under more surveillance than ever before. We even voluntarily give up this information when those with smartphones check into stores or public places that they visit. Cameras are placed in stores, street corners, and some even opt to put them in their homes. EDR's (event data recorders) or black boxes are placed on new model cars to track the mechanisms of the car should an accident occur. Of course it is not mentioned that these devices also collect information that can be used against you, the owner of the vehicle, in a court of law. Of course we all know that our cell phones can be tracked by GPS, pinpointing the location of an individual in a matter of minutes. Hitler and Reinhard Heydrich would have had a field day with this technology.
Innovations in technology can be used in a beneficial manner. Medical advancements can save lives. Some would not be alive today without the advent of the ventilator or the defibrillator. However we need to concede that a dark side has emerged from our rapid progress. Intrusions upon privacy run largely unchecked. Most of us have nothing to hide but allowing our lives to be on display degrades the very spirit of the individual. We become apart of a hive-like mentality instead of the sovereign beings that God intended us to be. It is not the collective that assists you when you meet your maker, you are judged based solely on your individual actions in this life.
Like the chimps in Kubrick's masterpiece, we have come to a juncture where the evolution of technology has not paralleled our ability to handle it. It invades the sovereignty of our lives and ultimately could lead to an overreaching network that could easily be manipulated by the wrong person in power. I do not ask that people cease and desist their playing of Angry Birds on their phone but we need to question what the endgame is. Are we driving this forward or are we being driven to a place where there is no return? Where we, because of a new shiny object, are too distracted to realize that the thing we hold in our hands has all the power.
