By KAITLYN SKRZYPCZAK, Editor-in-Chief.
Technology is not going anywhere (omitting World War 3, the apocalypse or a cosmic collision that we can’t prevent). And from what I’ve seen in my short 23-year span on Earth, it’s only going to become more ever present in our daily routines. But is that necessarily a bad thing?
We all know someone who complains that technology is “taking over” their lives. They just need to “disconnect” and “get away from it all.” Viewing technology as inherently stressful, however, can create a self-fulfilling prophecy. The stories we create through news articles, television shows and movies affect how we conceptualize and use it.
There are plenty of instances that I’ve seen online that aim to shame younger generations and technology in general. One example is of students on their cellphones in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam that prompted responses on social media like “so sad” and “technology is ruining an appreciation for art.”
The problem with this is that it’s the viewer’s perception that is defining the image, which doesn’t paint an accurate portrait of the situation. It turns out that the students were following a museum guide app on their phones to get further information.
New technology is going to continue to be introduced. People used to think that mass printing books would be catastrophic but in reality it brought forth an Enlightenment.
In the article “Why It Takes More than Unplugging to Solve Modern Stress,” by Amanda Enayati she discusses that stressors “in the broadest sense” are something “that knocks us out of balance.” She goes on to explain that “stress is not what happens to you, but how you think about what’s happening to you.” So, if you think that technology is inherently stressful, so it shall be.
As a culture we need to recognize the myriad ways, big and small, that technology has improved our lives. From pacemakers, to 3D printing prosthetic limbs, to FaceTiming your friends and relatives in realtime around the world. Technology is going to progress faster and become a larger part of our lives and we need to view it as the resource that it is.
We need to realize that we not only create technology, but the stories that help us perceive technology.
