I have scant experience of tech when it comes to our digital lifestyle and will admit to some of it baffling me, though when it comes to what we call technology in general, well, we all live with and benefit from it. It has so much potential, if it is not in the hands of… (insert word of choice here)! After all, otherwise we’d still be living in caves. And however much we might want to run away and live in a cave, away from the bewildering chaos of modern life, the first time we wanted a hot shower could well send us screaming back to an admittedly flawed reality.

I’ve spent some time considering how to express my thoughts about technology and whether I even wanted to express them. It’s a vast topic which I don’t pretend to know a lot about. So I thought I’d just focus on a few reflections about the world of communication in its broadest sense, though it’s less than scratching the surface!

Clearly, tech can be used for good or evil, or even just for fun…

So. Let’s see.

For me, I’d say phone technology is one of the most fascinating. I suppose it all started with smoke signals, you know, transmitting messages a long distance. Or indeed, as I have spoken about before on the podcast, the Silbo Gomero, communication via whistling across the Canarian island of La Gomera. From messengers who travelled on foot or on horseback, to the town crier, to the mail coach. From the printing press and the leap to the telegraph, to the phone and thence to the internet. Not an exhaustive list or in any particular order, you understand! It seems we have always looked for faster and more efficient ways to interconnect. Nowadays, the mere idea of being able to speak to someone instantly on the other side of the world shatters my brain. I remember when my sister moved to New Zealand, and on the phone, there was a huge delay, but it was pretty amazing, all the same, that we could talk on the phone. And now, video calls as if she is in the room!! It blows my mind. But I’ll take it.

So, one point for the phone.

And thinking of communication, what about air travel? It has allowed us to journey to any part of the world, to connect across the globe, and yet contributes to the destruction of the planet. Hmm…

And how about journalism? Technology has made news available 24-7, and not just the day after something has happened in daily printed newspapers. So accessible. But it leads to doom-scrolling, as I mention on the podcast. Also, although it has always been biased, (I remember an example given to us at school of one press outlet referring to terrorists and another, talking about the same story, to freedom fighters), now it feels harder to see, to differentiate the truth from the lies, what with anyone being able to spout any nonsense to the masses via social media, not to mention AI. So we end up in our own private echo chamber.

And finally, mobile phones, or the smart phone. This came up in a class recently, quite randomly, as one of the most unnecessary inventions the world has seen. And it’s an interesting point. On the one hand, yes, they are unnecessary as can be proven by the fact that human beings have survived without them right up to, if we push it, the latter half of the 20th century. But on the other hand, nowadays, they have become essential for work, for social interaction, for information. They are necessary for, I won’t say the majority of people in the world, but for a very large proportion. Because we need everything instantly. Our pace of life has increased so dramatically over the last decades that if it’s not now, it’s never. And there lies the rub. You have to jump through hoops to live without them, and life can become more complicated. And the fear is that you may fall behind, or have to do twice the work if you assert your right not to have one. Banking apps are replacing physical offices, as just one example. You have to have an account to do anything if you want to do it online, and input your details. And if you don’t want to use that format it’s far more time-consuming and difficult to even speak to someone. It’s like smart phones have been forced on us, and should we not wish to “partake”, for whatever reason, we are being punished, we’re the stupid ones, for not embracing something that can make our lives so much easier.

The same is true for anything I guess. Technology, or inventions, are designed to make our lives better, yet they can end up either making our lives harder if we eschew them, or control us if we don’t, in the sense that they make us dependent, or indeed free up so much time, (on the face of it a good thing) that so much more is expected of us because we DO have more time, when all we may want to do is use that free time to do absolutely nothing!

I suppose my point, if indeed I have one, is that technology, in whatever form it takes, can be a wonderful way to bring us together and ease our complicated lives. We wouldn’t be where we are today without it. Humankind has always needed to advance, to survive, or to survive… better. I for one am pretty happy someone came up with the wheel.  But sometimes better has ended up meaning worse. Somehow, over time, human needs have mutated from being just about evolution and survival to wanting to be… gods? Comfort trumps confusion, an illusion of control gives us a sense that we are safe. We overlook any unforeseen impacts in favour of the now. We are ignorant, or choose to be, of the possible future consequences.

Maybe I should get out my pen and paper and travel the world (on foot, obviously), sticking my blog posts to trees… Naahh, too much effort.

Thanks tech!

And to finish, a few phrases I used in the podcast this week…

Get to grips with: To grip is to hold something tightly. The phrase means to really understand and be able to manage something. I want to get to grips with the concept of probability. (A true personal example. And I never really have!).

Fall by the wayside: You try to keep going, or you have various projects, and they, in the face of too many commitments, have to be jettisoned. Something or someone fails or abandons.

Pent up (anger): Coming from the old meaning of confined or kept in. When you’re boiling inside and feel it’s impossible to let out your frustration or anger, it’s like a pressure cooker that could blow any time!

Does that fly?: In Spanish, cuela? Literally in Spanish, to sieve or strain, but the idea is, does it pass (through)? Like, would you believe that? Even though it seems unlikely? Not sure why we say fly in English… Maybe it comes from progressing, moving on after a questionable comment has been made!

Anyway, that’s all for today. I’m off next week, back on the 12th!

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Podcast Technology is all around (Part 2)

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