#technology reliance

[writeouswriter]

To my neighbour who saw the glow in the dark planogram I bought and said, "oh, you know you could just use an app for that," uh, where is your whimsy, where is your whimsy, where is your whimsy, *throws your phone in the lake and points to it as it sinks,* is there an app for that?

[productiveandfree]

The Pros and Cons of Using AI for Recruitment

[phonytales-blog]

Wirelessly Wireless

I will start off this blog post with an acknowledgement to the film maker Robert Rodriguez and his blood filled, adventure tale, “Machete”.  Tired out from the long weekend my roommates and I decided to put on a movie downstairs in our living room.  The only problem with this is movie was downloading upstairs in my roommate’s room.  We are all in the 21/22 year old range and in good enough shape to take the walk up the stairs, but there are some moments when the minute and a half walk seems very unappealing.  This was one of those times.  If we could just find a way to control his computer screen from the couch, finish the download, upload the download on to his computer’s mainframe and wirelessly stream it to the hard drive in the X Box that is connected to the television.  This all sounded easy enough.  I made myself a grilled cheese and waited the 21st century work its magic.

The app search was officially on.  He first found a ten dollar app that would let him control his computer from his iphone.  After a little more research he found a free app with the same capabilities, but that limits him to 5 minute periods when controlling his laptop.  It was extraordinary to see so much effort be put into task in order to maintain a certain level of laziness.  He got his app and he performed all the before mentioned tasks.  We were watching Mexican street wars, with heads flying all over the  place in no time. 

Even though the app search took 15 minutes, it kept our legs fresh for movie watching and gave me a chance to make a grilled cheese sandwich for myself.

 If we did not have an iphone…

As we waited for the movie to download, my roommates and I had to decide who was going to be the unlucky one that had to walk up the stairs and import the file to the computer.  In the name of chopping people’s heads off with machetes we chopped straws and each chose one.  I ended up picking the shortest straw so I went upstairs and did the deed.   It actually was not bad at all and I felt silly for considering it a difficult task.  Not to mention, I got some cardio out of it as well.

Things to think about…

Will the quest for technology that increases convenience in our lives actually take up more time than doing the activities we are trying to avoid?

Will our reliance on technology change our outlook at what is a hassle and what is necessary in our everyday lives?        

Technology has altered our expectations of what is an acceptable use of our time.  The issue here was not the actual walk.  The motivation of the walk was not present because we knew there could be an easier way.  This particular instance shows how our idea of an acceptable use of our time is getting out of hand.  We need to stop focusing on creating technologies just to create new technologies so we can focus our efforts on the most useful applications of our new technology.  We also need to learn how to live without some of our new found luxuries because our reliance on technology could backfire on us in the future.