Techy tools

Tools that are brought about by technological advances are another example that has clearly good and harmful consequences simultaneously.  Whenever you create a new technology, you have creative destruction.  Luddites are a name given to people who are resistant to technological advances.  As I understand it there was a man named Ludd who broke sewing machines in response to being out of a job all of a sudden due to the machines.  Farming is another obvious example.  We have done amazing things with higher and higher yields, but how many perfectly happy farmers have then been relocated to factory jobs in urban areas that they now hate?

Technological advances usually make life easier, but at what cost?  I can contact literally anyone in the world from my iPhone now, but how often does that steal from the current face to face time I’m trying to share with friends in my present world.  I can tell you write now my two roomies are watching a movie while I write this blog on my laptop.  Not that a movie is likely to draw us really close to one another, but you get the idea.

Look at the advancement of transportation over the past 100 years.  We can now travel at ease to anywhere else in the world for relatively cheap compared to even 20 years ago.  If we’re not careful though, we neglect to lay roots down and become established in a local community.  It’s a tough rope to walk as someone who travels a fair amount; I can guarantee you of that.  100 years ago though, how many people ever dreamed of how the middle class of any country would be able to literally travel around the world on a whim?  People keep saying the world continues to shrink.  This is not literal but figuratively we shrink all the time.  Right now I’m in Yangon, Myanmar.  Tomorrow I will hopefully speak to my girlfriend in Liberia and my mom in the USA.  In the past week, I’ve spoken on facebook to someone in Liberia, Illinois, Florida, Turkey, New Zealand, Amsterdam and Prague.  Think about that for a moment!  I’m certainly not anyone famous, and I’ve talked to people in 6 different countries within a week’s time!

Now let’s talk about the potential downsides.  How many youth know how to carry a regular conversation in person with someone else?  My friend informed me she had read a study where video games lead to the same kind of addictive behavior that hard drugs can.  If you don’t believe me, take the iPad out of your child’s hand the next time they’re in the middle of their favorite game.  Better yet, don’t let them save their current level.  The very social networks we’ve all come to love have lent themselves to unprecedented levels of bullying that we can’t make laws fast enough to deal with.  Social networks like Facebook can easily lead to affairs as my friend often reminds me as to the reason he doesn’t have a Facebook page.