I can't believe it's 2012 and I am composing my FIRST blog entry! I have been involved with and sitting in the front row of the tech explosion since I was a boy and have been excitedly watching and participating in nearly all of the developments - yet never got around to blogging. Maybe I didn't think I had anything worthwhile to write about, or maybe I was afraid that no one would care.
Well, popular opinion be damned! Writing to me is therapeutic and so why not put some of it out there to take the arrows? I have no idea what general themes I'll post about (or if I'll continue to post at all) - my passions and interests are varied and, to be honest, I'm a little scatter brained AND compulsive, which at times has proved to be a dangerous combination in my life.
In this my first ever blog, I'm going to talk about what I think is both the exciting and potentially dangerous role of technology in our lives. My first view of a microprocessor was an Atari game console that my neighbor got for Christmas in the late '70's. It came with "Pong" and "Breakout". I was hooked and have been ever since! Little did I know at that time that working with computers would become my livelihood down the road.
Since "Pong", technology has crept into our lives at an ever increasing rate. When I first visited Disney's Epcot Center in 1980, the bold, futuristic technology on display was a kiosk with a TOUCH SCREEN mouse in a maze. It only took about 30 years for that to become affordable and consumable. With our smart phones and other mobile devices, we now carry on our persons much more computing power than would fit into a large room only 30 years ago.
When I was growing up, we had exactly one TV and one telephone in our house. At last count in my home today, we have five TVs and four cell phones (for four people), not to mention four computers, three Ipods, and two gaming consoles. That makes for a total of 12 internet connected devices in my home!
Obviously I think all of this is good or I would not have agreed to purchase these items. Through the internet connections, we have at our fingertips more answers to questions today that 10 years ago would have required us to own an up-to-date full volume encyclopedia library. There's really no excuse for us not to know how to do anything anymore.
We also have access to a wider range of thoughts than ever before. Before the internet, we had to get all of our "information" from rigid sources like the official newspaper or network news. Now we can go and find news when we want and from wherever WE choose. We can see the contrary view to what we are told is "popular opinion" and find out that we're not alone if we disagree. With social media like Facebook, we can also keep tabs on all of our "friends", even those that we'll probably never see in person again. All of this is good.
So what do I think is potentially dangerous with all of this technology and where it is going?
Well for one thing, and I may be just paranoid about this, but I have concerns about our privacy and our ability to live lives of liberty. Everything we do online is tracked and recorded for eternity. Companies like Google (who owns this blog site) track, use, and sell data about your online activity all the time. As more and more of this "Big Data" is collected, how will it be used? What if it gets into the wrong hands? What if we as a nation lose our minds and elect people who want to crack down on "thought" ala "Fehrenheit 451"? Think I'm crazy - just look at the "political correctness" and "hate crime" movements. Both are directed at trying to get people to think in a conforming way.
Another concern I have actually stems from a conversation I had with a psychotherapist. I told him that my theory on why we seemed to need so many people like him in our society today was because we had too much time on our hands to sit around and feel sorry for ourselves. 100 years ago, people were too busy just working to survive and didn't have the luxury of liesure time. He gave me some credit for the thought, but countered with his own theory that he thought it was because we've lost all sense of "community". We live in apartments or neighborhoods or towns and we don't even know the names of the people who live next door, let alone anything about their lives. I bring this up because I see much of the "Social" movement in technology as an attempt to fill this void, but I don't think it hits the mark. God made us as relational beings, and while posting on someone's wall may be seen as relating, I think God intended us to related on a skin on bone level. What happens to a society when we lose almost all personal touch and connection with others?
Even with the concerns, I'm still excited about the future possiblities for technology in our lives and I am excited to stick around and watch it unfold.
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