A little behind schedule here, but I would like to discuss my favorite points about the book Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. This book brings a question to my mind: are we attempting to “progress” as a society in an attempt to reach a certain end? Or are we simply innovating for the sake of doing something different? The passage that brings these questions to mind is this:
“The years of pioneering lay far behind them. Theirs was a civilization in which the initial difficulties had long since been overcome. The untroubled peace, the unmeasured plenty, the steady health, the large good will and smooth management which ordered everything, left nothing to overcome. It was like a pleasant family in an old established, perfectly run country place.”
Terry had problems with the fact that a society could exist in these types of conditions.
“Life is a struggle, has to be . . . if there is no struggle, there is no life-that’s all.”
I feel like most people these days pretty much agree with Terry. Nobody seems to be satisfied with a steady life in which their needs are perfectly met. I think that this is a problem and will continue to cause turmoil throughout the world. The final product seems like it was about 20 years ago to me.
The only outlook many people have for the future is technology. Evidence for this in all of the utopian/dystopian films we have watched in class recently. The main features include genetically perfected children and Tom Cruise throwing around data in the air with his light up magic gloves. As far as I can tell, people won’t be satisfied until doctors are able to implant metal hearts in their chests and brains in their heads so that they can be immortal. But even then I’m sure people wouldn’t be satisfied.
Obviously I’m pretty anti-technology and I’m sure that’s getting real old, real quick for people who actually read my blogs. Some people probably even think that hating technology is corny and unoriginal. I’ll tell you what’s corny though: zooming around in a “smart” six foot long metal box on wheels, scrolling through all of your social websites on your touch screen iphone that has a cracked screen . . . oh wait! Don’t forget to listen to the digital voice coming out of your Garmin telling you where to turn next because you can’t read the 20 foot green signs that tell you where to go-thanks, but I’ll stick with my map. I can see it now, one day I’ll be driving down the highway and notice that there are no more road signs. They will all have been taken down overnight because there will be a GPS built into every single car!
Think about the major “innovations” and technological progressions that have taken place in the past decade. Two that immediately come to mind are Google and Facebook. First I’ll take a look at Google. Let’s see, pretty much anything that interests you can be accessed in about three seconds by just “googling” it! I cannot even begin to try and count the number of tests that I have done zero amount of reading for, paid no attention in class, “googled” everything the night before and got a solid B+ on. It doesn’t help me learn; in fact I retain pretty much nothing when I try to learn things this way. Organizing the world’s information and making it universally accessible and useful. Now that’s a dream come true.
Man, I get fired up just thinking about Facebook. Never in my life will I support something so utterly useless and devastating to the world that I live in. The people who sit on Facebook all day are the same ones who complain about inequality throughout our country. Maybe there is inequality because you support a man like Mark Zuckerberg who is worth 10 billion dollars and done nothing but “make us all connected.”
As much as I have tricked myself into thinking that I enjoy things like YouTube and Google, I’m sure that I would be better off without them. Nothing makes my brain feel more like mashed potatoes than staring at the front page of YouTube and not knowing what I want to search for.
Technology does some good things, but it isn’t our savior. We need to take steps to make the world a better place without becoming reliant, using technology to overcome bad choices/lifestyles. I’m sure that we will never consider ourselves finished in our “pioneering” quest.
I think you bring up a great point. People want technology to bring things into their lives that will make it easier for them to survive. (Isn't that what technology essential does after all?)But in that we lose a lot of what is valuable to our own identity. I also agree that technology has a way of making people seem un-intelligent. They have their faces glued to their phones and computers every day, they have headphones in constantly, they take directions from a machine when they drive cars that can park themselves.. I mean the list just continues. I want to be someone who remains independent, even if it is against technology. Yes it has its perks, but I want to be able to function if power is lost and towers go down. I do not want to rely on a phone to tell me the weather, or time of day, I want to go outside and be able to figure it out on my own.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with so much of what you say! Until most recently, I didn't understand the "mashed potatoes" phenomenon, but now that I've had some time to kill on YouTube, I totally understand it. I also agree that Google has made my research easier (and considerably more lazy), and that Facebook has ruined more friendships than I can count. . . . And I'm more of a map guy myself.
ReplyDeleteI especially liked what you said about people wanting to attain immortality and even then not being satisfied. It reminds me of a story my friend wrote: a guy ascends to godhood, only to discover that he is still not satisfied with near-omnipotence and immortality.
I think that technology is a perfect representation of our flawed, consumerist, greedy society.
Great thoughts!
I really liked your post, including the anti-technology rant. Although I am not as anti as you, I do see your points. For class today, the assignment was something along the lines of coming up with the next big utopian idea. I say, knowledge and self-embetterment(if that is a word) after the world is pretty much devastated due to our technological advances.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do see the benefits of technology and believe that technology for research and medicine are great and should continue to advance (not to metal hearts or anything like that). But entertainment technology and pages like youtube or facebook should not grow, or even be removed. Technology is essential for communication, but it should be limited.