A Better Way to Be
Reexamining humanity's increasingly unnatural relationship with technology.
Photo by Andrea De Santis on Unsplash
I know modern technology is amazing. There’s many examples of its positive impact on the world. Like you being able to read this newsletter! Critiquing humanity’s relationship with technology is not the same as critiquing technological advancement.
We lack appreciation for the natural technology known as the human body. We must see how society’s unhealthy relationship to unnatural technology changes our relationship to life. Critical thinking supposedly separates us from other animals. But this ability means nothing without awareness to guide it.
If technology rots adult’s “fully developed” brains, what is it doing to children? The brain rewires itself to learn, whether learning is beneficial or unbeneficial. This is called “neuroplasticity”. If technology’s powerful stimulus reshapes the adult brain, what can we expect from a child’s?
Technology creates a new normal for brain development at every step of innovation. We are losing the vital ability to focus and be mindful. Something humans always had a tenuous grasp on, even before the powerful technology we see today.
We are in great strife due to modern society’s intentions. New technology allows those in power to manipulate the masses through media. Modern society places profit over people, so no matter how many adults and children kill themselves or become depressed, change will either not occur or be so slow as to compound the issues. Unfortunately, technology is being used to double down on choosing profits over people.
Humanity is so deep in technology’s clutches, some might say we’re enslaved. We get anxiety if we leave the house without our cell phone, a device invented maybe 15 years ago. Technology is just a tool, but taking technology and human nature for granted causes an attachment that increases our suffering. Sadly, we aren’t aware of how it increases our suffering. We’ve readily accepted technology as part of “real”, “desirable” life.
We have to ask more questions about whether we use technology or it uses us. And what is a healthy balance on a personal and societal level.
We’re losing our ability to concentrate. To sit in silence. To stimulate our minds, without consuming what corporations present to drain your pockets, while controlling your perspective.
The brain forms habits based on repeated stimuli provided by the environment. If the outside environment always provides stimulus, then the brain forgets how to stimulate itself. Eventually, it sees every moment without something to consume as an issue. This attachment to technology rots our brains from the outside in and the inside out.
We’re losing the focus and creativity that allows humanity’s evolution. All for corporations who want us addicted for their own profit. Money they don’t redistribute into the community at an adequate rate. Provided you value human life. Money grabbing, not helping people, serves as society’s foundation and focus. It doubles as the foundation for our relationship to technology as well.
We are moving further away from what makes us human. Which is concentrated creativity that builds new understandings of life.
Technology damages our ability to maintain focus and build a vision. Sustained focus of energy allows you to consistently build . Every time you swipe your phone screen, energy and focus scatters. What chance is there for innovation?
Technology constantly distracts us and somehow we’ve allowed it to be a good thing. Technology is a blessing, but when you can’t focus long or clearly enough to problem solve, Houston we have a problem. Distraction eventually turns to destruction. Beneficial decisions require proper focus.
Humanity refuses to think critically about our relationship to nature and what's natural, setting us on the path to extinction. If we allow ourselves to be tools of technology, rather than using technology as a tool, we will devolve into automatons, ignorant of what it means to truly be alive. What it means to truly be human.
We must take steps to make sure adults and children have a healthy relationship with technology. That way we can aid our development rather than hinder it.
I really could not agree more with all of this. My kids are growing up in a connected world where there is internet everywhere, wifi at all the shops, screens at the bowling alley, streaming shows, phones and tablets in every hand. It's amazing and terrible all at the same time.
But even with those distractions, they just rode their bikes in the neighborhood (in the rain) for an hour. So maybe they'll still play and get dirty like I did at their age.