Every one, it seems, has a mobile these days, even children in kindergarten. Billions of text messages fly around the world every day, and computers and call centers run every aspect of our lives. But is all this really life better? Here are seven good reasons for you to hate technology. It doesn’t save you time.
Many people make the mistake of thinking that technology is there to save you time. Wrong. It is there to give people new ways for filling their time. Take personal computers. Learning how to use all the feature of a new PC uses up all the time that having a computer saves. And what about all the hours you spend staring at incomprehensible instructions manual for your new telephone, TV, digital door bell? More choices doesn’t mean better.
Of course it’s wonderful to have a CD player, a mobile, a home computer, or an electric toaster, for that matter, but do you really want to play computer games on the 5cm screen of your mobile phone? Do you need your computer to answer the phone? Or your TV to make toast? It does things you don’t need.
Digital TV is a perfect example. When it arrived, we were promised a better quality picture and more choice. But at eleven o’clock at night as you flick through the 97 channels you can now get, it’s not the quality of the picture that you wrong about.
More the fact that not one single program is worth watching. It is out of date before you brought it.
After several frustrating weeks of finding all the right software for your new PC, then phoning ‘help desks’ when it doesn’t work, you will proudly show off your new machine to friends only to hear ‘oh, are you still using that one? I’m thinking of buying the new PYX5000, myself’
Later, when you try to buy some minor spare part, you find it is no longer manufactured, and then it would be much cheaper to replace the whole computer with the new PYX7500. No one takes responsibility when things go wrong. This is easy, because very few people really understand how the machines they have bought work. So you phone the software company and they will tell you it’s a hard ware problem. You then phone the hardware company and they tell you it’s a soft ware problem. Call centers are the worst. Phone the so called ‘customer care’ number, and after waiting on hold for fifteen minutes you will be told you need the sales department. The sales department assures you that it is a technical department you need, but surprise, surprise, the technical department put you back through the customer care. People can spend weeks of their lives like this.
It is destroying the English language.
Apparently teenagers now do so much texting and e-mailing that their thumbs are getting bigger. Unfortunately they are also forgetting how to spell. One American school girl recently wrote her entire essay on ‘My summer holiday’ in text speak. It began ‘b4 we used 2go 2 NY 2c my bro, his Gf & thr 3 kids. I l NY it’s a GR8 plc.
Or for you and me. ‘Before we used to go to New York to see my brother, his girlfriend and their three kids. I love New York it’s a great place.’ It is anti social.
A recent survey showed that more than eight out of ten young people would rather text their friends or family than actually speak to them in person. And according to the same survey, twenty-five percent of people could answer their mobile phone even during a moment of passion. I ask you is this really a better world.