For this weeks blog post (which I know is late but I’ll go for it anyways), I’d like to discuss the current phenomenon in the fallacies of using technology for doing things that we would rather not apply ourselves to do.
The mind is a complex tool that is given to us so that we can think about ideas and processes in order to progress. But how is technology hindering this use of our mind as a tool? I understand technology is advancing and has only become more integrated in our everyday lives but isn’t it a bit much sometimes? For example, look at navigational applications and software that is so commonly used today. You hop in the car and put in the address you want to go to and an app like Google Maps tells you the step by step directions to get there. This seems great with everything laid out for you but for some reason your directions tell you to take the next exit and you want to go across four lanes of traffic in hopes that you’ll make it. Why does this occur? There are literally signs telling us how far the exits are from the points of the sign but we ignore these signs because we’d rather rely on our GPS to tell us when/where to exit the freeway. I’m not saying this is the app’s fault but rather our dependency of technology over using our own minds to think about our next move. This is just one example of how technology has hindered the mode of human thinking.
“And our skills deprive us of the force and agility that necessity obliges him to acquire” (Discourse on Inequality, p. 68). If we rely on technology to do the thinking for us, then we lose the ability to think for ourselves.
https://phys.org/news/2018-08-always-on-technology-hinder-groups-ability.html
You made some good points about our society relying too heavily on technology, especially in your discussion about how we put so much of our trust in GPS systems when we are driving that we sometimes find ourselves not utilizing our own minds and free will when thinking about the next driving move.
I appreciated the nuance in your commentary, and how the title you provided enhanced the complexity of what you had to say! Upon reading your title, my mind immediately displaced culpability of mankind’s cognitive deficiencies to technology. However, upon further reading, I realize that you actually delineate what you mean by the title by ultimately attributing blame to humans: although technology may have caused us to behave contradictorily to what our innate login may dictate, it is our own human agency in choosing to rely on technology that creates our excessive dependence (this is, at least, how I understood it)!
Another detail of your post which I found intriguing was the word choice, specifically in the first sentence of the second paragraph: “The mind is a complex tool that is given to us so that we can think about ideas and processes in order to progress”. The reason I focus on this phrase is because of the claim staked that our mind was a boon conferred to us. If this is the case, then was there perhaps a divine aspect–and therefore divine culpability–within this technological argument? If some deity had equipped us with a mind which inevitably harkened the advent of technology, then is that deity to blame? Many religions across cultures exhibit creation narratives where some divine force creates man out of their own image (this idea of creating a lesser although somewhat representative being is especially observed in Christian and Greek Mythology).
Nikolaos,
I think that your post was very interesting and brought to light some very good points. I agree that technology has really taken away our ability to navigate through the world that we live in since we so heavily rely on apple maps, google maps, etc. This made me think about how we even look up WHERE to go. If we want food, we google “food places near me” and let our technology do the thinking for us, rather than maybe using our sight (looking at the restaurants we are driving by) or even using previous knowledge of places that are around. We instead choose to look at the first 10 restaurants that come up on google and choose. Technology does do the thinking for us and how we have pretty much willing gave up free thought to our phones.
I agree that technology has limited the general populace’s capacity to use critical reasoning and logic. However, I don’t think that all technology has to be this way. In general, I can concede that instant gratification of information on phones, computers, etc. has limited many people’s ability to think for themselves. However, I think it is also important to consider how we make technology work for us. Supercomputers used in research and tools like programming are mere tools that researchers use as an expression of their own thoughts. These scientists make the tools work for them and not the other way around. For example, while supercomputers do the actual math that would be difficult otherwise, it is the person programming and doing the inputs that are driving forward progress and discoveries.
We do rely on technology a lot ever since smart phone became a thing. Like you said we depend on GPS for direction rather than our knowledge of the road and the area. However GPS also allow people to travel to places you have never been too. Last quarter I traveled to Julian for the first time without going research about the road at all. But with GPS I was able to get there without any worries or problems at all.
Nikolaos,
I believe that we are supposed to use technology to support us and not rely on it completely. In terms of your GPS example, I personally tend to look at the distance from the next exit which is updated live unlike signs as well as the actual signs to know which lane to stay in. Having technology support us in this way instead of solely relyinng on it has given me a positive experience navigating with a GPS