Technically Incorrect!
“Technology is how you use it!” This is a line oft cited while deciding the value of any technology. And it’s so true! A computer is a piece of technology but it means different things to different people and it delivers different value to different people. Same is true for any other technological invention…
However, do we ever use technology to its fullest? Or is it that like every new thing that comes our way, we go through ‘excitement-use-limited use-taken granted’ lifecycle for technology as well?
I believe it is the latter!
Emails were a rage when they were introduced. So were mobile phones. And so were so many things that technology brought in our lives…
What happened next?
Everyone started using emails. Even the ones who had nothing to do with computers got hooked. Long texts were sent to friends, family, acquaintances and even total strangers. All collective wisdom of the world got circulated around the globe in the name of ‘forwards’. (It is still doing the rounds, though!).
The more people started using it, the less the use became. Emails started getting a purpose. People only wrote emails when they wanted something from someone. The ‘just like that’ emails started becoming rare.
Another interesting thing happened. The emails weren’t now being sent to all and sundry in the address book. Email forwards were sent only to select few who were considered close. News or occasions were conveyed over emails but only to those whom we would have otherwise called up and informed. So, at the end, it became the case of technology mirroring the real-world.
And in that it probably lost its promise!
We never really used emails to get closer to those who weren’t. We never really chatted away with distant cousins regularly to diffuse the distance. We never really used egroups to have those long-winded discussions that we have had with our friends, cousins, family over a cup of coffee!
Technology gave us the freedom to go beyond our constraints (and beyond ourselves!); we, the powerful race on the earth, the creators of technology, in turn constrained the technology to our own limits!
We won or we lost?
And, while I am busy managing a team of technologists, a long-lost, beloved friend posts a once-in-a-blue-moon ‘just like that’ message over instant messenger making me realize what the answer is!
However, do we ever use technology to its fullest? Or is it that like every new thing that comes our way, we go through ‘excitement-use-limited use-taken granted’ lifecycle for technology as well?
I believe it is the latter!
Emails were a rage when they were introduced. So were mobile phones. And so were so many things that technology brought in our lives…
What happened next?
Everyone started using emails. Even the ones who had nothing to do with computers got hooked. Long texts were sent to friends, family, acquaintances and even total strangers. All collective wisdom of the world got circulated around the globe in the name of ‘forwards’. (It is still doing the rounds, though!).
The more people started using it, the less the use became. Emails started getting a purpose. People only wrote emails when they wanted something from someone. The ‘just like that’ emails started becoming rare.
Another interesting thing happened. The emails weren’t now being sent to all and sundry in the address book. Email forwards were sent only to select few who were considered close. News or occasions were conveyed over emails but only to those whom we would have otherwise called up and informed. So, at the end, it became the case of technology mirroring the real-world.
And in that it probably lost its promise!
We never really used emails to get closer to those who weren’t. We never really chatted away with distant cousins regularly to diffuse the distance. We never really used egroups to have those long-winded discussions that we have had with our friends, cousins, family over a cup of coffee!
Technology gave us the freedom to go beyond our constraints (and beyond ourselves!); we, the powerful race on the earth, the creators of technology, in turn constrained the technology to our own limits!
We won or we lost?
And, while I am busy managing a team of technologists, a long-lost, beloved friend posts a once-in-a-blue-moon ‘just like that’ message over instant messenger making me realize what the answer is!
posted by Leziblogger at 8:48 AM
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