iPROBLEM

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In a tech-saavy age, I have a problem with some of Apple’s devices. About a week ago, I saw an advertisement for an application on the iPAD where a guy speaks English and it reads back the Spanish translation. For a moment, I thought that would be really cool. It’s much easier than Rosetta Stone, which is about the same price upfront, but then I had another contrary thought. I worry that we have become so dependent on technology that we cannot do without it.

Recently, there was a brilliant mock advertisement for the iPAD. I present it here for your viewing pleasure.

I remember a simpler time. I remember a time when, prior to final exams, we were handed a pencil and paper and turned loose without any other materials to help us. Now, I have students who are constantly looking things up on the internet to supplement their discussions and arguments real time. I remember a time when calculators had only four functions and cost $100 or more. Now, I have students who cannot do simple calculations on their own and whip out their iPHONEs to use the calculator application for simple things. I remember a time when you had to actually talk to or write to people in order to communicate and share in their lives. Now I have students who are on the internet tagging people in photos, worried about stalker-finder applications, and who read about others on Facebook without actually talking to them.

Apple’s devices lead to less communication and higher costs. As we turn more to electronic gadgetry, we draw on more electricity at a time when the global energy availability has reached a low for our lifetimes, when they want us to power everything with the wind and the sun instead of fossil fuels. There is not capacity to capture enough power to fuel the world, and when there is a power outage, people who depend on the types of items such as those Apple produces are completely lost and debilitated because they can’t do anything without their phones.

Many of apple’s devices are fine so long as we remain their master. The problem is that more and more they draw us into a virtual world that does not really exist. People play games without exercise, keep tabs without actually talking, and speak foreign languages without any knowledge of what the words the translator applications actually mean. I present a quote from a friend prior to her disappearance from the virtual world:

I've always hated social networking sites. I've always hated the internet in general. It connects me to the virtual world, but disconnects me from reality. I'm picking up more books, going on walks that will be full of thought, writing incessantly, and spending time with actual people. I will not allow the internet to consume me like it does so many others.

Electronic entertainment provides to some the mistaken notion that if they can conquer a fake world that they can succeed in the real one. The more we become tech-savvy at the expense of other skills, the weaker we are. What happens when a time comes when nobody knows how to actually do long division or speak Spanish without a device? What happens when the satellites go out or the power spikes and we have to actually communicate with one another?

I worry about Generation Why and the technology with which they have been bombarded. There was a time when that kind of person was considered a nerd, a dork, or a geek, and pronounced unworthy of association or relationships. They have more means of communication than ever before but they communicate less. They have more technology to help them do work but they accomplish less. They have more access to information than ever before but they know less. The fill countless wasted hours with complete strangers instead of going out and actually interacting with people, and in the process they never grow up. So now we have internet dating, social networking sites, blogs, ad infinitum. We don't meet people anymore or talk to old friends or even know how to use a phone. So many of them are socially awkward, immature, and rough around the edges. If they can surreptitiously communicate, calculate and copulate, then what happens to civilization?

Technology was supposed to make life easier. While none of our electronic creations have overtly taken over our society such as in iROBOT or other films, the devices seem indeed to have done precisely that. We use Word instead of pen and paper, we use Guitar Hero instead of real instruments, and we use eHarmony.com instead of going out and asking people on dates. Apple didn’t create this mess, they just create some of the tools that facilitate the end of civil society. Technology is fine as long as we remain its master. Like the ad mocking the iPAD, they have really just created something we already have at a much higher price as a means of fitting in, keeping up, and playing favorites.

Gadgetry plays into the balkanization of society, because if you don’t know how to use one or don’t own one, you fall under the pirate’s code. Those who fall behind get left behind. I thought we left medievalism in the past. iWRONG