Let’s go back to the good old days of the 1960s

By Lionel Wijesiri

I was never a tech-savvy person. Maybe that is why I think that the modern world has gone crazy and technology is to blame. I agree that we are more connected than ever, but unfortunately not to each other. We interact with multiple devices throughout the day, all of which are designed to inform, educate and entertain. But when it comes to interacting with humans, we have failed miserably.

Maybe, I am a complete moron when it comes to gadgets which are digital, electronic or even mechanical. The other day, I bought a small domestic fire-extinguisher. At home, I read the directions. “To operate, turn bottom up and bump head on the floor.”

I can very well remember, decades ago, I opened any door by turning a knob. Today the door slides into the wall and each time pinches my fingers. Or the door is concealed in a row of similar glass panels, along which I move helplessly like a goldfish in a tank, looking for the one that opens.

Most confusing of all is the furtive type that operates with a photo-electric eye. It always catches me unawares. The other day, as I entered a corporate building, I came across such an entrance. As the door parted silently in front of me, I shifted my bundles into one arm, extended my free hand and gave the door a hard shove. Result: I lost my balance and landed flat on my momentum.

By now, you’ll pretty well understand my own frustration on these gadgets!

Human communication

Today, we are in the midst of a new digital era, where mobile phone, iPad, iPod, Facebook, and twitter dominate. Technology has made leaps and bounds in recent history and shows no signs of slowing down. With this exponential evolution occurring at a pace so fast that it takes constant attention to keep up, and the fundamental questions arise: What implications will this new era have on society and how will it shape the future?

One of the most dominant features of technology has become its evolution of the way in which we communicate with one another. Human communication has remained fairly constant, and limited, for the vast majority of our time on earth.

Face to face and interpersonal communication had been the status quo for thousands of years. Charisma and oratorical skills as well as social cues and eye contact have been keystones in our abilities to interact, get what we want, and make progress as a society. This, however, is all changing. It has become commonplace to send an email instead of writing a letter, a text message instead of calling, and adding someone on Facebook instead of inviting them to a cup of tea.

Digital communication is leading to unprecedented manipulation of our traditional methods of interaction. This is potentially dangerous.

Upside down

Last week, one of my office managers told me a story. “Last night my seven-year-old daughter shrieked at me. “I am talking to you, thaththi, put your Blackberry down, please,” she screamed with tears in her eyes. She almost cried. Like a thunderbolt, her appeal struck me. What have I been doing to my little children all this time? I thought”.

“Although I was seated in the sofa with my daughter, I wasn’t really present. I was checking my email on the smartphone. By my side was the iPad with a PowerPoint presentation half done.

The boundary between work and life had become so blurred that it’s almost impossible to get off the grid. At that moment, I resolved myself to take technology time-outs on the weekends and in the evenings by hiding my devices so I’m not tempted to sneak a peek.

All emails can wait. I needed to a small window with my children from the time I come home from work until she goes to bed and she deserves to have my attention - fully and undivided.”

Technology has transformed this young man’s family upside down. Although we may not realise, all of this attachment to gadgetry means that our attention is divided. It is rather impossible to fully engage with our children if we’re checking our email or trying to complete the PowerPoint Presentation in the middle of a family conversation. Worst of all, our kids know when we are not listening to them.

Lazy and sick

Fifty years ago, visiting a friend or family member meant travelling; nowadays we are satisfied with a few minutes on FaceTime or Skype. We befriend and de-friend people from social networks without actually meeting them. Our photographs are digitised, which allows us to keep what we want and delete the rest. We can order food and groceries online without leaving home.

Technology is making us lazy, really lazy. I get the feeling that we’re getting closer and closer to the day when people won’t even be able to read newspaper any more. There will be a day soon when people will have no idea how to navigate through their own cities without using a GPS.

Digital native

A few years ago, the internationally respected Sunday Times (of London) published an article on the digital revolution.

The 20-year old woman says, “first thing every morning I wake up, check my mobile for messages, have a cup of tea and check my e-mails…Technology is an essential part of my everyday social and academic life.” She grew up with technology and thus, she is called a “digital native” and her mother a “digital immigrant,” or someone who can still remember a time when no one had cell phones and e-mail was almost unheard of.

The article uses these two women as examples of how the proliferation of technology in our lives is only growing. More and more is becoming possible, as we are now able to connect human brain cells to computers.

This would be the ultimate, and unnatural, change in our physiology and it may get more and more difficult to determine where the human user stops and the technology begins.

Once we start literally linking ourselves physically to computers, how much of us is really still human? That would be an evolutionary change on a scale that Mother Nature has never seen before, and at a much faster pace. We can only imagine the implications that would have for our future physiology and communication, even though that image is quickly becoming a reality.

Now, do you get the picture? That is why I want to go back to the 1960s when life was comparatively normal with the minimum number of gadgets and I used to enjoy every minute of it.