Today we find ourselves asking whether
the frequent use of technology separates and detaches us from a lifestyle of
true meaning. In response, I propose that technology dissatisfies humanity in
subtle, yet paramount ways that outweighs the misconstrued satisfactions that
it presents to us. Therefore, technology is a paradox in of itself, as it is
truly retrogressive, because it destroys the natural purpose of human life.
Human separation from nature leads to a life that is separated from purpose.
It is clear that human nature has
always been social. Humanity seeks to communicate and we seek expression.
Humans feed on each other, and we use each other as a source of happiness. In
our state of nature, happiness cannot be achieved when we are alone; we seek to
share our liberties with others, which is an additional progenitor for engaging
in society. Our connection to fellow man is part of what makes us who we are.
The ability to love, feel compassion, friendship, bonding; it is an autopoetic
process by which we engage in with each other to improve ourselves, to find
ourselves in self-actualization.
In an attempt to connect with fellow
man, we have forged a whole new way of viewing our ‘connection’, especially
with our friends and family. This is the Internet connection. The Internet
connection we have seen today is largely derived from Social Networking, which
has forged this false idea of human connection. We feel so satisfied when we
are connected with people face to face. We think about them so often when they
mean a lot to us. The more we interact with them, the more we feel addicted to
them. We feed for these addictions through the use of social networks. We use
instant messaging, email, texting, phones, websites, blogs, Myspace, Twitter,
Facebook, forums, and a host of other mediums for virtual communication. It is
what I call, the Social Addiction. We are socially addicted to each other.
Social addiction has now become an epidemic in which always seeking connection
with our partners in life.
The problem with social addiction is
that it destroys the ideal that made us truly compassionate at its most
fundamental level; the family. Sherry Turkle explains how often children and
parents together confess to the social addiction of technology. Often times
when children get out of school to go be picked up, she says, children report a
yearning for that eye contact with their parents. When children and parents are
spending time together, and a child tells their mother or father about their
day, who at the same time are engrossed in email, work, or messages. It is an
addiction to social life that is so consuming in communication that is destroys
true communication itself.
Our ability to function as humans is
negated in the absence of technology. Sherry Turkle, a computer scientist and
psychologist reports that many of her studies indicate that when their phones
are taken away, they report feelings of anxiousness. She explains it as a
‘phantom limb’. It is a part of ourselves that we can hardly imagine ourselves
without. In the absence of our technology, we feel as if we are out of tune
with the rest of the world. The truth is, when we are absent from our Internet
connection, we are in tune with nature. This is where we can find our true
connection in life. Henry David Thoreau states “The scenery, when it is truly seen, reacts on the life of the seer.
How to live. How to get the most of life.... How to extract its honey from the
flower of the world.” Thoreau again states “We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical
aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us
even in our soundest sleep.” Thoreau was a man who walked away from society
in an endeavor to reawaken his senses to the beauty of nature, and the true
purpose of life. It is this step away
from society and the technologies we depend on, and move closer to nature, move
closer to our barest, most naked form of connection that we realize a situation
in which we are the most relevant with each other. Where we thought we were
vulnerable is our true fortress, the foundation on which we live. This was the
great discovery he made in his venture into nature.
When we wander around, staring down
at our phones, glaring into tablets, or listening to our headphones, we miss the
world around us. We are too busy connected with the world; we are literally disconnected
with reality. The virtual world engrosses us in what Mrs. Turkle calls a
“lifemix”. Many people have an online identity separate from their real lives.
Others have online mistresses, and have personal and even secondary lives over
the Internet in ‘virtual relationships’. Technology has made us fearful of
intimacy, she says. We are too scared of being intimate in person with one
another, so scared of rejection, embarrassment, and a host of other humiliating
feelings. Passion and compassion become irrelevant in our feelings. We go from
emotion to emoticon, and we forget what it feels like to be connected on a
personal, natural level.
He found that, much like Turkle
studies, technology would dial down human contact. In Shakespeare’s words “We
are consumed with that which we are nourished by.” Turkle explains the modern
mentality as going from “I have a feeling, I want to talk to them” to “I want
to have a feeling, I need to send a text.” We risk losing our capacity for the
kind of solitude that energizes and restores, according to Turkle. This
indicates that as people, we drift away from the things that we seek to
achieve. We wish to be even more connected, even more communicative. Technology
has done the exact opposite, it has made us less connected and less
communicative in the ways that really matter, and more so in the ways that
drive us from nature and our true purpose in life.
This is actually dangerous to our
connections as it harms the way our body feels emotion. Much of what drives our
passion for happiness is to conduct a good deed from another. Often, our
incentive for continuing this sort of work is led by the most subtle of
rewards. These range from big smiles on happy faces, to sincere “Thank You”
replies, and even hugs. These signs of affection, emotion, and persona are lost
in the virtual world. When using things such as texting or social networks, we
only get smiley faces, lots of exclamation points, or what seems to be a
positive text. We don’t see the emotion, feel the happiness of the voice, or
become encompassed by two arms in an affectionate hug.
We must evaluate how we can
integrate both this technology and our need for true human connection into our
daily lives. Once again, to paraphrase from Thoreau; “Where do we live, and what do we live for in our new tethered lives.
In other words, what do we have now that we have what we say we want now that
we have what technology makes easy.” Thoreau is asking us if we really
think we have everything we want. Are we truly satisfied? Or is technology just
giving us that virtual taste of what our addiction demands? It is true, as
Turkle makes clear in her speech, that it would not be feasible to just rid
ourselves of technology. As far as we have come, that would be impossible. What
we must do, however, is decided how we want the computer and its technological
cousins to play a role in our lives.
It is my hypothesis that we can
bridge this connection by straying from social networks as a medium for
communication. We must see that it is our human nature that changes, and it is
we who drive the markets. The technology does not drive us, for we are the
creators. We must learn to adapt, as we have always done. As we change, we
change our technology. This also means our mental, physical, and spiritual
aspects of life must be balanced accordingly. In an age where most hard labor
is done mechanically, we don’t need as much back work done. This also means
that you get less exercise. So in order to balance, we must exercise more. What
this means is the more we use social networks as a communicative medium, we
need to also balance this with face to face contact with those we love and care
about. When we lose this contact, this connection, we dissolve fundamental
aspects of relationships. It then becomes dangerous not only to our connections
with others, but to our own mental state.
When we integrate technology into
our lives in a way that is productive, and able to make us more effective in
our day-to-day lives, it becomes just like a hammer, or the wheel. It allows
progression, efficiency, and relief in our workload. It is obvious that this
sort of inclusiveness of the computer serves a purposeful function, like
anything else. On this level, it is obvious a help rather than hindrance. When
these things are used to create secondary lives, to act as the new medium for
communication, or to transform our emotional states, it shows a different view
of technology in a less than helpful light. We must prevent it from taking over
our emotional state of nature. Through balanced integration, we can allow this
by using the computer as a tool, and not as a body. We must remember that our
body is equipped with everything, both physically and mentally, in order to
help us maximize a meaningful life. It is not necessary for us to live on
computers for this meaningful, purposeful life to be fulfilled. As a
supplement, the computer, much like the wheel or hammer, only make aspects of
life easier. It is not, however, a secondary body, and it does not need to
substitute the body. When we have met this equilibrium, we will once again be
in tuned with nature, and return to our state of harmony.
Through this, we can integrate
technology into our lives, and save ourselves from losing the human connection
we value so dearly. In conclusive analysis, I stand affirmed that the
separation from human nature leads to a lack of true meaning in ones life.
Through balanced integration, we can create an equilibrium that will help
humans grow as our minds, abilities, talents, and imaginations transform
through future generations, while still preserving our natural feelings.
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