It was the year 2010 when the iPad started flying off the shelves. You and I all were trying to grab one. Then came a man who transformed the world – Steve Jobs. It was the gadgets like iPad, iPhones, and MacBook- the reason for his recognition. When he was asked in an interview if his kids assess the Apple products, his answer was just beyond the expectation. I quote, “They haven’t used it, and we limit how much technology our kids use at home.” The inventor himself set the limit to his invention.
No doubt Technology has proved to be a boon for the world. Reaching any part of the world is just a click of a button away. You can carry the world in your palm. Every field: education, business, medicine, space, and all the others use technology for running or rather flying in the universe of knowledge and achievements. But one needs to land on the surface to walk and nourish one’s body and mind.
Technology keeps on pushing the envelope forward. We say it’s something new and that something hasn’t been tried. Then it is the error of online social media that things are moving so quickly that they can catch or die within few days.
Integration of technology in schools and colleges has become the yardstick to gauge the high quality of education imparted in schools. Today, children as young as three and a half years old would be seen fiddling with an iPad. So the coming generation gets very well versed with the technology at the start of the worldly life. But don’t you think it’s dangerous because technology limits and kills our creative skills and thinking at the root level.
‘Creativity is a life skill’. It can be attained by toiling the soil of the human mind but, instead, we imitate work in the name of ‘searches’ on sites or Googling that is not our creativity. Have you ever thought, indefinite use of mobiles put you in a Zombie mode? Well, a zombie is a human being without conscious perception of itself and the world around it and, that is what the phone does to you.
Technology often lures us with multitasking, that is, do one thing while you do something else. Just imagine trying to mix thinking creatively about a problem and sending an email. It will not work and, this is the side effect of technology.
The blue light keeps on stimulating our brain when we are on social media. No invention, no thinking, and allowing the technology to take care of the work for us. In other words, we are sacrificing our original thought of keeping ourselves entertained. Also, its addiction does not leave enough time for doing work and, hence we tend to copy others’ work.
We have a complicated relationship with technology. Just peep into the future. All computers will disappear because everything in our life will be computer-driven. Be it your home equipment, your clothing, your way of living, everything. Isn’t it a dangerous combination? Today’s technology relationship is very cramped with tomorrow’s computer.
Before online shopping came into existence, we explored the market for daily needs that gave mobility to the shoppers. Interaction with people enhanced social networking. We used our brains for creating new designs but now scrolling on mobile and home delivery has confined us to our houses.
Technology doesn’t have to get in between people. It can also enrich what we do with each other. That is the good news and, for that, we need creativity. It has been easier for a good idea to become a reality these days because the tools are getting better and, we have things like Kickstarter crowdfunding. Thanks to technology. But at the same time, it has been hard for us to have a good idea and, I think this is a side effect of technology.
Technology is a faithful servant, but a dangerous master. It is possible that someday, we all sit at home watching games more and more and be less and less in the real world. We need a lot of good design to ensure that our future interactions with technology are shaped in a human-friendly way.
Every idea that any human has ever had has come into being is human creativity. Let’s open our eyes to the power of sometimes closing them.