There is one thing all technology has in common. It all caters to us. It's all for our convenience. Back in the early days, when hunters invented tools and weapons to catch their meal for the day - that was for convenience. In the old-timey days when we used horse and buggies to get around instead of walking - convenience. Pasta strainers - convenient. Toilets, beds, radios, cafeteria trays, winter coats, bulldozers, 2-in-1 cans of primer paint... We're constantly, rapidly, pushing out ideas to make things for the human race more convenient. Why?
Ever heard you or someone else saying that there just isn't enough time in one day (to get everything you wanted to done)? Well, with all of these little improvements, maybe you can. Maybe you can finally get everything you wanted done. I mean, instead of walking to your destination, you can have a car. That could save you a half an hour of trouble. Even little improvements like those laundry sheets with the detergent and a dryer sheet built into the same thing. Saves you a minute or two of pouring the detergent into the washing machine and pulling a dryer sheet out of the box, doesn't it?
But it's not going to stop here. We're never going to stop trying to save ourselves time. And as a result, I think we are sucking some of the flavour out of life. Not literally, because a lot of people are preferring to stop at a fast food restaurant after work, or soccer practice, or school, or just pop chicken nuggets loaded with preservatives into the microwave, in lieu of cooking a meal. And, I'm not saying I don't do these things, nor am I saying you can't ever do these things. It's delicious! But what's easy and fast isn't always better.
Going along with this food theme, check out these infomercial:
I like 1:16, when the woman says she is enjoying cooking. I think she means she enjoys putting food into a machine that does most of the work for her so she can go do other things. I also like 1:44, because it's a perfect example of how infomercials use really weird tricks to try and get you to buy things, like enhancing the voice for "SERVE, SEAL, & STORE".
I love cooking... I'm not very good at it, but I find it fun. It's relaxing for me. It's something I like to learn about, and read about, and I'm excited to make dinner and dessert at the end of the day. Let's say, years and years from now, machines do all of the work for you. They chop your ingredients, put some in a skillet, your marinated steak in the oven, and you're free to sit on the couch and play Final Fantasy's eighty-second installment. You've never cooked your whole life. No one in your generation has. That's one less hobby you could have. Worse, that's one less hobby anyone could have. WORSE, that's one less career choice.
What if everything becomes like that? How many jobs is the world going to lose? This sounds like it's turning into a robots-are-taking-over-the-world-ohemgee blog post. In a way it is, I guess. I'm worried we're going to lose our individuality to convenience. I mean, what's one of the first questions people tend to ask you these days? "What major are you in?" The adult version of this is, "What do you do for a living?" It's a big definition of who you are as a person. I told my orthodontist a couple weeks ago, "Game Art and Animation." He laughed, beaming, and exclaimed, "Oh, you're a computer geek!" I proudly smiled back. "Yeah, I am!"
A good summary of what I am trying to say here, would be the movie Idiocracy. Here's the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0yQunhOaU0
The main character ends up in the far future, a time during which technology has come such a far way that machines do everything for humans. So humans are able to be... not very smart.
Another example of convenience having a negative effect, in movie form, would be Wall-E. I can't find a clip of Wall-E walking around the spaceship, Axiom, but there is a scene in which Wall-E is among the citizens of the Axiom, all in their electric hover armchairs, with holographic screens in front of them, talking to their friends, or watching TV. And they are all enormous, gelatinous blobs, due to never having to walk in their lifetimes. The scenery is also made up of huge screens with commercials about a mock WalMart company called Buy n Large, which owns the ship and everything on it. Hopefully most of you have seen Wall-E, because I'm not an expert with film summary. But I did find a blog written by Josh Golin about the statement against commercialism in Wall-E, which you can read here: http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/articles/featured/trashingwalle.htm A bit unrelated, but there is a bridge between convenience and commercialism.
Anyway, wrapping this up, I'm not saying convenience is terrible. It's good to have some extra time in the day. But it's when we begin to ignore parts of our lives that we shouldn't ignore for the sake of convenience, that I worry about. We tend to take the easy way out. If any of you have "read" a book on sparknotes.com, instead of reading the actual book, for school, there's your example. We're sacrificing quality for convenience. Hanging out with friends and family for texting; hiking and exploring for video games; hobbies for time. And I guess that's what I mean by convenience making life a little less flavourful.
Citations:
1. "Ninja Master Prep Blender and Food Processor @ Bed Bath & Beyond" 13 November 2009.
YouTube. 5 September 2010. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wRYd5H3koA
2. "Idiocracy - Trailer" Dir. Mike Judge. Perf. Luke Wilson. 12 December 2007. YouTube. 5 September 2010. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0yQunhOaU0
3. Golin, Josh. "Trashing Wall-E". Commercialfreechildhood.org. n.d. Web. 5 September 2010.
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