I have this rule about Googling stuff. We'll it's more like a guideline than a rule. I won't Google more than once a week. Anything after that I will ask somebody (usually on Facebook) until someone can answer my question. I don't do this necessarily because I am in desperate need to know that one thing I am asking but because if I didn't ask questions I might not talk to any of you at all. Seriously, what would we talk about? I already know everything about you. I can read your thoughts on Facebook. I know what you like and what you don't like. I know your politics, your religion, your sexual preference, and the foods you like. I know everything about you and I do it all without knowing you.
The world of technology does everything for me. I can go all day long and not really talk to another human being. I have a watch that tells me the time, my heart rate, and how many steps I've taken. It also gives me my messages and emails, plays music, take pictures and video. If I ask it will also tell me how well I slept throughout the night.
My phone tells me even more. It tells me where I am and how to get where I want to go. It keeps track of every move I make and who I communicate with. Every possible thing that exists on the internet I can now access through my phone. I can watch movies, TV, or read books. I can take better pictures than most professional photographers could take just 10 years ago. Every day millions of people take pictures with their phone and upload them for the world to see. The other day I was staring at my phone and contemplating Googling something and finally decided I wouldn't I was going to ask a real person instead. I looked at my phone and said, " Okay Google, I am not going to ask you what the latest book by Henning Mankell is I am....". Before I knew it a little red microphone popped up and a voice proceeded to tell me the answer to the question I just said I wasn't going to ask. I had no idea my phone could do that (It was a brand new phone). I knew Google had a voice app but I thought you had to press a button first. Apparently Google is always listening. You would think this was a good thing right? It may be but I have to be honest and tell you that it sometimes feels very wrong. Sometimes I feel like I need to run from it and never go back.
We are getting so damn connected to everyone else on the planet it seems like we are not impressed with each other anymore. Nothing impresses us. Just like television desensitized us to violence so does the internet desensitize us to each other. It gives us a false sense of connection and gets you hooked on that connection.
Kids today have it worse. It takes an act of congress to get them to put their phones down. I have this rule at my house or when we go out to eat that all phones must be off while we are eating. It's uncomfortable for the kids. You can see it when they eat. They become fidgety and nervous like a person who just gave up smoking. It's sad to watch.
The other day I drove by this very pretty wooden house with cute little wooden deck as a front porch. Three teenagers sat on 3 old fashion looking rocking chairs rocking back and forth enjoying the good weather. All 3 of them sat there staring at their phones. They appeared to not notice each other at all. They were connected to whatever or whoever on the phone but with no connection to each other. I think any one of them could have gotten up and walked away and the others wouldn't have noticed.
You know what bugs me the most about technology? It's the fact we don't know how to use it for good as much as we use it for convenience and fun. The smartphone is an amazing tool we can all use easily to learn and grow and become better than we are. Do you know what it's biggest use is? Selfies. Every day millions of people grab their 500 dollar phone, which is more sophisticated than computers from just 20 years ago, and take pictures of themselves. They take pics and post them on their Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and a variety of other social media. They don't look up definitions of words they don't know. They don't learn history or science or math. They just take pictures of themselves.
Sometimes I think the phones will become intelligent and figure out how stupid we really are and kill us in our sleep just to put us out of our own misery.
I don't hate technology. I just think there are some very bad side effects to it that many people seem blind to. And I include myself in that bunch also. I have become very dependent on it. We all have. I just wonder if someday we will get lost in it forever. If we do we can't blame anyone but ourselves.
I blame my selfie.
