 |
Call me a Luddite...
Posted by davidvc on April 17, 2007 at 04:27 PM | Comments (8)
I just returned from a week in Mexico, a wonderful time with my family where
we lived very simply - food, rest, physical fun. No TV, no movies, no
cell phones, no computers. Bright sunshine, beautiful beaches, very
friendly people wherever we went.
Then I came home to San Francisco and straight to the
Web 2.0 Expo.
The contrast has been a bit disorienting. I don't think it's a surprise
that my one year old son learned to say "Hi" in Mexico - people actually
greeted him there and interacted with him. Here in the conference, on the
BART train, on the street, we are all in our own world. We are on our
laptops, our phones, our iPods.
The keynote talks at the Expo underscored again and again an undeniable
trend: there is an ever growing explosion of the use of consumer devices
and connecting to the Internet. The vast scales of data and connections
we are looking at are almost impossible to imagine. The whole world
is "getting connected." And those of us at the Expo are generally
very excited, and see lots of opportunities to make money and
and to build things that lots and lots of people will use.
But I feel a sadness when I find myself in this environment. I feel like
I am losing something. I watch myself "plug in," and I feel like I
am actually losing connection. I crave the open sky, the deep
stillness and power of the ocean, of the smiles of people who said
"Hi" to my son.
I don't know why everyone else is constantly plugging in, but I know why I
do it. I do it to distract myself. From what? From discomfort.
From reading books on this subject and
from my own experience as a father, I have come to understand that
babies need to cry. It's a way of relieving stress, and when
they're done crying, they are much calmer and happier.
But when a baby is crying, most of us think something is wrong, and
we feel we have to stop the crying. If they're not hungry
or wet or tired, then we try other things. We jiggle them, we walk them,
we sing to them, we give them a toy, we give them a binkie. We put
them in front of a TV. We do everything we can to get them to stop.
And ultimately something usually works. But it disrupts the natural
process of crying to relieve stress. And we habituate them to using
distractions to avoid suffering.
I have read over and over again in various spiritual traditions that
suffering is a great teacher, that if we can just be with our pain it
can transform us and heal us. What I see in our culture is that in
general we don't know how to do this, and we're doing everything we
can to distract ourselves. And those of us in the technology industry
find ourselves in the position of making money by feeding this habit.
One of the reasons I like working for Sun is that as a company we
seem to really get that it is good for business to be good stewards
for our planet and our community. I think that's a very sane
business model. But I don't think we in the technology industry
really see or consider the potential damage feeding more and more
technology to consumers has on our community. Over the coming years
I believe the evidence will
begin to pile up around the detrimental effects of the over-use of
technology, especially for children. No business
strategy is sustainable if the health of the community suffers as a
result, and I believe this constant plugging in is seriously unhealthy
for all of us.
Technology in itself is not evil. It can be used as a tool to do
great good in
the world. But sometimes I feel that our industry believes
anything technological can only be great. And to say otherwise,
I almost feel as if I were betraying the clan I am part of.
But sometimes you just have to speak your mind.
Bookmark blog post:  del.icio.us  Digg  DZone  Furl  Reddit
Comments
Comments are listed in date ascending order (oldest first) | Post Comment
-
I am glad you discovered, or rediscovered, the beauty of simple things. It happens to many people almost every year, after vacations. The bad thing is that usually it is forgotten in a few weeks after resuming work.
Wealth and High technology doesn't means a better life in all subjects. There is a price to pay for it, and usually is lack of family ties and values, human isolation, and many things you appreciate, for a while at least, when traveling the not so developed countries.
I think it is very hard to get a proper balance between development and real quality of life. Here, in Argentina, you can still visit a friend or relative without previous announcenment even during week days, and most of the time you will be welcomed. This was one of the reasons, among many others, because I choose not to relocate to USA many years ago, when was still easy.
Regards,
Diego.
Posted by: dags on April 18, 2007 at 07:03 AM
-
Agreed, and if we're not careful enough we may end up wiping out bees, which in turn will weep out flowers, and then plants, and then animalsTechnology is great, but I'm still not convinced it's not evil. Time will tell, I assume, but then... will it be too late?Cheers,Antonio
Posted by: vieiro on April 18, 2007 at 10:15 AM
-
There is a big difference between connectivity and being connected. It tends to amaze me how few people still have a basic grasp of personal etiquette.
Typically, the more choices we have, the more superficial we become. There are many notable exceptions to the rule, but I am not one of them.
But I don't believe technology is evil. Technology simply is. It is when we take technology and put it to a purpose that it gains a spot in morality.
Posted by: tarbo on April 18, 2007 at 11:30 AM
-
it doesn't amaze me in the least. Kids are ever more taught to be selfish, egocentric, that the entire world revolves around them. Correcting kids for bad behaviour is now in many places in the west actually illegal, considered child abuse even if it's only a stern talking-to. With education being eroded in favour of purely physical characteristics (sports, youth gangs) it's no wonder ever more people withdraw into themselves, especially those who can't or won't accept and be accepted by that "new" elite, an elite that craves outside symbols of status and group identity more than intelligence or manners. Thus the iPod and the cellphone are status symbols just as much (or even more so) than specific brand clothes in the 1980s (and those still are marks of group identity).
Those kids don't really care about the function of the device, they care about being seen as having one so they're recognised as (wanting to) belonging to a specific group, the group of popular kids.
In such a society manners and interpersonal relations are secondary to perceived status and group identity. And with the media strengthening that ever more (through advertising and reporting) and glorifying bad behaviour (the outlaw, criminal, or otherwise antisocial figure you will notice is ever more the hero in movies and TV shows, which is where most people get their role models!) it'll get worse before it gets better (which I hope it does, for if it doesn't society is going to go downhill to the point where noone is safe to walk the streets).
Posted by: jwenting on April 18, 2007 at 10:04 PM
-
Fantastic blog. This is something I think about a lot as well. So much social-this social-that; what happened to saying hi to someone in real life?
Posted by: ilazarte on April 19, 2007 at 12:03 AM
-
London tube unwritten rules of etiquette dictate that you should not look at others or you risk being interpreted as a deviant. How did we get to this point? Surely we're all sociable animals, craving the acceptance of others, but persecuted for saying "hi". Maybe in cities we live too close, we need separation to appreciate contact (absence makes the heart grow fonder?!). Fortunately, I work in a village, where everyone will bid you good day with a smile on their face regardless of if they're having a bad one.
Posted by: dansiviter on April 19, 2007 at 12:44 AM
-
Thanks for the wonderful post. I'd like to suggest two ways to really be social: (1) Be the first to say hello to strangers on the street. Some people don't like it, but a surprising number of people, even in an urban setting, will respond. (2) Get a dog and take it for daily walks in your neighborhood. We got our first dog 11 years ago, and it was astounding the number of people who would stop to talk to the dog, and by extension, to us. It's a sad commentary on our times that people would rather talk directly to our animals than to us, but if it's a way to break the ice with neighbors, use it. We could all do with less ice in our lives.
Posted by: coreador on April 28, 2007 at 02:54 PM
-
coreador: Nice tip. I discovered the same thing when we had our first child. I know our neighbors and neighborhood much better now, just by taking baby out for walks.
But for those of you who aren't quite ready or interested in the Baby Path, a dog is a good approach :)
Posted by: davidvc on April 30, 2007 at 09:15 AM
|
java.net RSS Feeds
