We know the answer to the technology problem
They’ll sell you a promise, but give you an expensive tether to the nearest power point. That’s the tech business, all talk and big ideas. They’ve got the answers, trust them. You’ll get your hoverboard soon enough! Throw out your TV, lie back, and say ‘‘Alexa, play my favourite music’’. Amazon’s Alexa will tell you what you like and what to listen to. Don’t worry. Don’t think! Just relax.
And at some point, years later, after you’ve been distracted with constant notifications and the never-ending search for a charging port, you’ll look back and realise what you’ve lost.
The latest blaze of technological ‘‘advancement’’ was supposed to have made our lives better. It’s time for an assessment – are we better off now? Or has so-called advancement come at too high a cost?
I’m far from technophobic, I’m practically a walking cyborg. I have two phones, two laptops and a stereo that can hold a stilted conversation.
Every day I wake up and say ‘‘Alexa, quiet. Alexa, shut up’’. The serene playlist I set as an alarm doesn’t quite do the trick.
Talking to ‘‘smart speakers’’ is like talking to a dog. Sometimes it seems to understand, but most of the time it does the opposite of what I want. These things never really meet your expectations. That, or they solve a ‘‘problem’’ you never knew you had.
A couple of years ago, trying to stay ahead of the game, I bought a smart watch. These days they’re sleek, designed with soft edges and a silky silver lining. Some say they’re stylish. But smart, not so much. Was there anything wrong with a normal, analogue time keeper? The indoctrinated will say smart watches are great, they push notifications to your wrist! But waiting an hour to read an email never bothered anyone.
These days, people complain about ‘‘information overload’’. It’s said this constant connectivity is bad for our health, and smartphone addiction has been labelled an ‘‘emerging public health problem’’.
In 2016, just one in five people said constant connectivity was negatively impacting them. By 2018, a UK study found 60 per cent of people described themselves as ‘‘hooked’’ to devices.
It’s inexplicable to me why we do this to ourselves. Are Snapchat’s filters really worth our constant attention?
There’s a growing trend online called ‘‘slow journalism’’. The idea is that instead of being constantly connected, lapping up hastily prepared breaking news stories and morsels of snackable content, you wait to read the big story after the dust has settled. This idea’s created quite the flurry of excitement, with the New Yorker declaring: ‘‘The current system for delivering news online is broken. Readers and journalists will need to work together to find a new one.’’
Like me, you might be thinking this whole ‘‘slow news’’ thing sounds awfully familiar. If you’re reading this here, I suspect we’ve found the solution together already.
As a society, we’re now looking to solve problems we already have the answers to.
If you found this story on Facebook, there’s a good chance you complain often about ‘‘junk news’’ and ‘‘clickbait’’. The solution is, don’t read it. The solution is, pay for your news. Don’t spend your day mindlessly scrolling on Facebook. Read a newspaper, watch some quality television, go to the cinema, or just enjoy your free time.
I have no issue with people who enjoy what the high and mighty may call ‘‘trash’’. If you want to spend your life looking at memes, the internet is a wonderful place. But it does present issues, and people love to complain about them.
Although complaints keep flowing, it’s very rare for people to change their habits to ease their troubles. Why is that? I’ve complained before about how ridiculous it is that people respond to work emails after hours. Yet I continue to do so.
Increasingly, it feels like our choices are made for us. We are led by the hand of Zuck to the cellphone store, hand over our money, data and privacy, and embark on an increasingly shallow technological journey.
I repeat, I do not hate technology. We need new technology to help us fight climate change and inequality, and to build the future. But advancement at what cost?
News last week painted a bleak picture for the future of New Zealand democracy and culture. MediaWorks, which operates the only independent TV broadcaster, Three, needs a new owner. Will it find one? Don’t hold your breath.
It needs a new owner because your eyes have been busy elsewhere. We’re awash with options, but sometimes it feels like we’re being trained to act a certain way. I tell Alexa to play RNZ, but for some reason it keeps turning on Apple Music. I pick up the remote for my new TV, and right above all the numbers ‘‘1, 2, 3’’ there is a big red button.
Do I push the button? It says ‘‘Netflix’’. What does it do? Not a helluva lot, but I push it anyway and then complain about how crap all this tacky American programming is. Damn, if only there were companies that curated interesting and entertaining shows for a local audience.
Was there anything wrong with a normal, analogue time keeper?