Let’s see, what is the point of technology?  It seems like technology tends to make things faster and more efficient and sometimes “cooler”.  But with all this new technology, we tend to use our minds less.  We no longer need to take the effort to learn how to do somethings because all these new gadgets and equipment do it for us.  With us not being forced to use our minds, I think we might lose the ability to use our own heads and also lose the ability to “know how” to do things if technology weren’t around.

How many phone numbers do you know by heart?  Do you know any?  Do you even know your own phone number?  Chances are you know few, maybe your own, a significant other, your parents, a best friend.  What happens if you lose that cell phone?  You’re pretty much helpless.  You know no ones number nor do you have any way of contacting anyone.  Luckily a pay phone is not that difficult to use.

How about a map?  There were days where when you needed to go somewhere, you pulled up a map on paper and figured out the directions that way.  With GPS and Google Maps, I wonder if some people even know how to use a map.

Soon enough, people won’t even know how to write.

Now what about the people who all know how to use the “old school” stuff but don’t know how to use this new technology?  They’re basically helpless as well.  These people have basically missed the transition of things.  Technology moves so quickly that as soon as you master one thing, there is something newer and better that you have to relearn.  It seems very difficult for this set of people to ever catch up.

Computers are way too complicated to operate, as well as cell phones, cameras, and ipods (heck, what’s an ipod?)  So we end up leaving these people behind and helpless as well.  Nearly everything people use these days require some technological knowledge.  What good is that new gadget you got your mom if she doesn’t even know what it is or how to operate it?

There once was a lady who was a temp at the company I worked at.  She had to have two applications up to move data back and forth between the two.  At one point she called me over and needed help.  She said that she had opened up the first application and now the second, but she couldn’t see the first application anymore.  I was like oh, it looks like the second application you have opened just has its window maximized, just go ahead and minimize or resize the window.  She said, oh do you think you can do it for me?  Huh?!  Really?  Just click this I tell her.  Oh she says.  At another point she had made one of the rows in her excel spreadsheet wider than the others and didn’t know how to change the size of the row.  Now this lady was very sweet and nice but she really did not know how to use a computer.  Something so basic to many of us was completely foreign to her.  She ended up leaving before the week was over because she was too overwhelmed by the technology.

So is technology a good thing?  I think sometimes.  I think if you are one of the people who keep up to date with things then yes.  But I also think we need to take extra effort to train ourselves to know what to do when technology fails.