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What I am concerned about is the reliance on technology, and how I think it is having (or will have) a negative effect on people's ability to memorize. Why remember basic math facts if you have an instant calculator always at hand?
To illustrate what I mean, I am am a wine associate (consultant and stocker). Two days ago, a young woman came in and asked for if we had a certain bottle of wine, a question that we are asked about a hundred times a day. I asked, "Which one?" She said, "Just a second", took out her Smartphone, and started scrolling and scrolling and scrolling. After at least a minute of looking -- I swear! -- she said, "Kendall Jackson Chardonnay." I mean, really? How much effort does t take to memorize three fairly simple words? I wonder if she would or could remember "milk, eggs, and bread" if she needed to pick up those items on her way home from work.
Or another illustration: I recently read that half of today's kids do not know how to hand write! Now I find that hard to believe, although I have heard the argument that it is an outdated skill that is no longer needed, but what happens if, for whatever reason, computers are down and the ability to text or e-mail is gone?
Or what happens if there is a massive and ongoing electrical outage or some other "crisis" in which simply going to the store and paying by debit or credit card is not an option? Even if you have plenty of canned food, that's not going to do you any good if you don't have an old-fashioned manual can opener handy.
And maps! With GPS, how many people even have old-fashioned paper maps now, or even know how to read them?
The list goes on and on, but in short, I don't think technology is the problem as much as how so many people seem to be so dependent upon it.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by whocares811
What I am concerned about is the reliance on technology, and how I think it is having (or will have) a negative effect on people's ability to memorize. Why remember basic math facts if you have an instant calculator always at hand?
...
Or another illustration: I recently read that half of today's kids do not know how to hand write! Now I find that hard to believe, although I have heard the argument that it is an outdated skill that is no longer needed, but what happens if, for whatever reason, computers are down and the ability to text or e-mail is gone?
Or what happens if there is a massive and ongoing electrical outage or some other "crisis" in which simply going to the store and paying by debit or credit card is not an option? Even if you have plenty of canned food, that's not going to do you any good if you don't have an old-fashioned manual can opener handy.
And maps! With GPS, how many people even have old-fashioned paper maps now, or even know how to read them?
The list goes on and on, but in short, I don't think technology is the problem as much as how so many people seem to be so dependent upon it.
Yah. We (in the West) have mostly lost the ability to memorize (or simply never cultivated it) entire works or large chunks of text - like Homer & The Iliad or The Odyssey. There are still Islamics who memorize large parts of the Koran. But we're mostly not an oral culture society anymore - one of the things we gave up in favor of movable type & mass printing - even if we didn't realize it @ the time. From Homer's POV, I'm sure most of us are either children or barbarians.
canned food - No, there are lots of ways to open a can - depending on how messy it gets, or maybe better still, how hungry you are.
Yah, skills are lost with time. Push comes to shove, I can get out & hunt down a rabbit, ID it, kill it, field dress, skin, gut, cook & eat it. I'm sure I'd get better with practice, but the skills are there, dormant all these years.
@ the larger point - yes, just like in Fahrenheit 451 - In that day, revolutionaries had to memorize the works they thought were important to the next civilization. It was the only way to ensure the transmission of culture to the next gen. Something to consider. A good-sized EMP, & the vast majority of these expensive devices (cell phones, smart phones, laptops, tablets, etc.) become flimsy paperweights.
whocares811 - here's an interesting article titled "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" I almost suggested you do a search for it until I realized how ironic it was suggesting a google search about this topic with that title
The article is over 9 years old and is probably as applicable today as it was when it was written. We've not just seen the loss of ability to memorize but also the ability to focus and process information.
I specifically remember life sucking before smartphones and internet.
I remember being stationed in Florida driving around with an old fashioned map to figure out where I was going while driving (and people think texting and driving is dangerous).
Once I did find my way around, I remember flipping through a binder of CDs while driving looking for some particular one that may only have 1 song on the whole album that I wanted. Now the car just links up through Bluetooth to my phone. So much easier and safer.
Trying to buy something was a real hassle. You had no way of knowing if you got a good deal, and if it was something spaecific you wanted, you might have to drive all over town looking for it. Most of the time you'd just settle for whatever you found. I had the yellow pages earmarked for all kinds of auto parts store and junk yards looking for hard to find auto parts.
Before digital cameras, I took maybe 12 pictures a year. I went to Europe for 6 months and took 48 pictures. Most didn't turn out well, but I didn't know that until after they were developed.
Banks. I had to make a trip to the bank like on a weekly basis. I had to make sure I lived close to one. Now I don't know, nor care where it is.
Isn't it funny how people are complaining about how stressed out they are? They walk around plugged into their smartphones just waiting for a ding, a dong, or a ping that keeps them updated to the minute with little tidbits of useless information. That phone goes everywhere, (talk about a monkey on your back), to the bathroom and even to bed.
Now if that isn't enough to stress you out we have 24/7 tv news that should more appropriately be termed "opinion" than news. We also have the internet that is said to be the greatest invention ever with porno being the top internet business.
The internet has lots of information for everyone. However it is filled with point counterpoint leaving most scratching their heads wondering who's right.
I remember the days when hard wired phones where the thing and party lines were the norm. It was really something when we got a private line. If you were on the road we had pay phones. The news was a half hour of local news and a half hour of world news. (It was real news not opinions). TV wasn't rated then but we had no fear of allowing our children to watch any show. Dictionaries were in almost every household and if your family had a few extra dollars there was also a set of encyclopedias. School kids went to the library for research and to do homework. Most people I knew didn't even bother locking their doors.
I remember all of that as well donsabi. I still haven't given up reading actual paper books and use my local library often. It always puts a smile on my face to see a parent in there with their kids holding armloads of books.
I don't deny that there are huge advantages to tech. I have ZERO sense of direction and can get lost in my own hometown. GPS and mapping apps are a must have for me. The other side of that though is in the past when I got lost, I'd find some fabulous new places.
Some of my closest friendships have started with random conversations at bus stops and in retail stores. Those all started before the time that half the people you encounter out in daily life are carrying on a conversation on their cell phone or looking at their screen.
Location: In a rural place where people can't bother me ;)
516 posts, read 430,545 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ziggy100
I specifically remember life sucking before smartphones and internet.
I remember being stationed in Florida driving around with an old fashioned map to figure out where I was going while driving (and people think texting and driving is dangerous).
Once I did find my way around, I remember flipping through a binder of CDs while driving looking for some particular one that may only have 1 song on the whole album that I wanted. Now the car just links up through Bluetooth to my phone. So much easier and safer.
Trying to buy something was a real hassle. You had no way of knowing if you got a good deal, and if it was something spaecific you wanted, you might have to drive all over town looking for it. Most of the time you'd just settle for whatever you found. I had the yellow pages earmarked for all kinds of auto parts store and junk yards looking for hard to find auto parts.
Before digital cameras, I took maybe 12 pictures a year. I went to Europe for 6 months and took 48 pictures. Most didn't turn out well, but I didn't know that until after they were developed.
Banks. I had to make a trip to the bank like on a weekly basis. I had to make sure I lived close to one. Now I don't know, nor care where it is.
Exactly my sentiments. But the attitude towards said inconveniences before technology wasn't as it is now. Like you didn't know it was such a hassle until tech arrived and showed you how much better and easier life can be. Someday I'm sure humanity will look back and wonder why we drove vehicles on the ground instead of through the air.
Quote:
Originally Posted by donsabi
Isn't it funny how people are complaining about how stressed out they are? They walk around plugged into their smartphones just waiting for a ding, a dong, or a ping that keeps them updated to the minute with little tidbits of useless information. That phone goes everywhere, (talk about a monkey on your back), to the bathroom and even to bed.
Now if that isn't enough to stress you out we have 24/7 tv news that should more appropriately be termed "opinion" than news. We also have the internet that is said to be the greatest invention ever with porno being the top internet business.
The internet has lots of information for everyone. However it is filled with point counterpoint leaving most scratching their heads wondering who's right.
I remember the days when hard wired phones where the thing and party lines were the norm. It was really something when we got a private line. If you were on the road we had pay phones. The news was a half hour of local news and a half hour of world news. (It was real news not opinions). TV wasn't rated then but we had no fear of allowing our children to watch any show. Dictionaries were in almost every household and if your family had a few extra dollars there was also a set of encyclopedias. School kids went to the library for research and to do homework. Most people I knew didn't even bother locking their doors.
Ain't technology grand?
Life was simpler before technology, I'll admit. However, people stress themselves out. No one forces anyone to be on facebook, or anxiously wait for the next ding dang or dong alert on their phone. Everything is a choice. I choose the internet as my main source of time killing, entertainment things to do etc. I don't have Facebook or any major social media. Unplugging for me would mean mass boredom. That's all.
I graduated high school in 1996 right around the time the internet and cell phones started taking off. Glad i was part of the last generation that experienced life growing up without being glued to a phone or computer screen.
Life was simpler before technology, I'll admit. However, people stress themselves out. No one forces anyone to be on facebook, or anxiously wait for the next ding dang or dong alert on their phone. Everything is a choice. I choose the internet as my main source of time killing, entertainment things to do etc. I don't have Facebook or any major social media. Unplugging for me would mean mass boredom. That's all.
I disagree. I think the point of e-technology, purchasing, e-mails, etc. is to simplify life. Pre-electronics - PCs & Internet & so on - you had a grocery store, a garage/mechanic, a butcher, a milkman, a paperboy, a pastor/priest, a barber/hairdresser ... There was a fair number of people you interacted with face to face or @ least on the 'phone, regularly. You could know their name, their history - to some extent. In the e-world, yah, most things/services are available 24/7, or you can leave a message.
But there's hardly any there there. You don't need to interact with a person @ all, if you don't want to. & @ 3:00am on a Sunday, if it's urgent, it's probably just as well. Yah, there are tradeoffs - you can conduct business 24/7 as long as you have a signal - but there are privacy concerns, & NSA can still access metadata - your life can be modeled/reconstructed, to a certain extent, depending on how much you do online, & how long you're out there.
Neural nets are like any other biologic construct - there's an optimum time (for most of us) to learn language, for instance. If social nets & behavior aren't learned @ the optimum time, they never (usually) take as well as they could have. Something to ponder, as we consider falling birthrates & what they portend for the continuity of nations. Is the West truly Amusing ourselves to death? (an excellent book, by the way. A good primer for many of these notions.)
Overall Technology makes our life easier. However, there are bad points as well, but no one is forced to sit on CD or FB all day. People need to learn to unplug.
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