Assignment 6 - Invisible Technology
I remember when I was around 18 or 19 and I never really understood the concept of what WiFi actually was. We had Internet at home, but I would just always use my Internet on my data plan with my phone. I don’t recall the certain point in my life where I discovered the ability to connect to the internet at home (or in other areas) but I remember, when I did – there was no turning back. WiFi is one of those things that make you feel at ease – you’re connected with the outside world, and it’s costing you not one cent. These days when you’re out, or you’re on holidays, 95% of the time the first thought that will be running through your mind will be “does this place have WiFi? What’s the password for it?” I know that is my first thought 100% of the time. I think that after all of these years, WiFi has become somewhat “expected” in our lifestyle. We automatically assume that houses we visit will have WiFi we can connect to, restaurants we dine at will have WiFi, we feel that we have the right to never have to use our OWN data, because there is WiFi to connect to.
In an article by Dave Knox, titled “How the Digital Revolution is leaving the consumer behind” he states that: “Consumers are also visual creatures: after a while, they forget that invisible technologies – like WiFi – exist”[1] WiFi is a technology, just like a computer, a tablet or a smartphone – it is a technology, but one that we often forget about because we are so used to “having WiFi” that we forget that it is an actual element. WiFi is one of those invisible technologies that create a “safety blanket” for us when we are connected. For example, as I am studying abroad right now and I am extremely far away from home, my desire to be connected to WiFi has become a quintessential need so I can be connected to my family at home, but also my life in Canada. I don’t have a data plan in Canada, so for me to use my own data (from an Australian telecom company) would result in very VERY large phone bills (which I have experienced before and it is not pretty).
WiFi is also, in the literal terms an invisible technology – as it really is invisible. The only thing that we have to represent WiFi, is the connection icon that nearly, if not everyone who either users a computer or doesn’t would know what it represents. You cannot see WiFi, so it retains a status of being “invisible” in both the literal and metaphorical terms. So how does this all relate back to the ecology of media? The idea that media centres on the principles that technology not only profoundly influences society, it also controls virtually all walks of life is accurate. If you look at how our lives are run by something so simple as an Internet connection, or the emotions that run through us when our WiFi connection is slow and poor – you can evidently see that technology does profoundly influence and control our society. Whether you deem this to be a positive or negative thing is up to your own personal preferences and choices, but the truth of the matter is that our lives are heavily controlled by something that we cannot even physically see or touch – it is controlled by a connection.
It is kind of alarming don’t you think? That we can go from one emotion of being happy to being irritated and angered within seconds of losing a WiFi connection? I know that is the range of emotions I go through. I’ll tell you a quick story – the other night I had to go to the Laundromat to do my washing (I have a washer and dryer at home but I am having issues with my housemate… which is an entirely different story in itself all together, so hence why I resorted to having to use a Laundromat for the first time in my 25 years of existence). Because I am still getting to know my way around where I am living in Ontario right now, I was Googling a lot of Laundromats and then mapping the bus routes out for them. There were a couple of Laundromats that were either a 10 minute walk from my condo, or a 5 minute bus trip – but none of them had WiFi (that was avidly featured on their website or within their customer reviews) so I kept looking until I found a Laundromat that had featured “Fast connecting free WiFi” in their description on their website – I mean I needed to go to a Laundromat that had WiFi… what else was I going to do while my clothes washed and dried? The only underlying issue was that this said Laundromat was a 37-minute bus ride away – but I went. I went on the bus for 37 minutes there, spent 2 hours there whilst my clothes washed and dried and then spent another 37 minutes on the bus home… All of that just so I could get a WiFi connection, rather than option for the 10 minute walk to the Laundromat down the road. Does that not scream that technology is influencing your everyday choices? What’s even more startling is that throughout my processes of finding a Laundromat with WiFi, figuring out how to get there and which bus to take, not once did I actually question if travelling 37 minutes on a bus to and from a Laundromat was insane because at the end of the day – I would have a fast WiFi connection where I could connect with the world whilst I did my washing. I see it as multitasking; others would see it is obsession with technology and connection. Either way, I’d do it again.
[1] https://hardknoxlife.wordpress.com/2008/07/27/how-the-digital-revolution-is-leaving-the-consumer-behind/
