Technology is good - and bad

TECHNOLOGY. It must be one of the most-spoken words on the planet. It is fast moving, it is developmental, it is progressive. What it is not, is easy.

While millions of young people – and the not-so-young – might find technological advances easy to absorb and are adaptable, there are those among us (read me) who find it more difficult to keep up.

I also find that technology infringes upon life. Social interaction seems to be falling by the wayside as people bury their noses in their laptops, their cellphones, their tablets - you name it - while eye contact and ‘normal’ human conversation become a thing of the past. Recently, concerns have been expressed about technology addiction (currently being diagnosed as a mental illness), shallower human relationships as a result of the increase of social media, a lack of privacy and the impact of cyberbullying.

I also recently realised, with horror, how dependent I have become on technology. While in Johannesburg, my phone died. No screen, no communication, nada.

I do not know many people in Johannesburg and so, after a brief anxiety attack, I asked the owners of the accommoda- tion establishment where I was staying whether I could make a phone call. It was at midnight and the answer was an apologetic ‘no’. It was too late at night, it seemed, to open an account which would allow me to use a normal landline to communicate, ironically, my lack of communication with my nearest and dearest.

An employee took pity upon me and lent me his cellphone so I could make a single call.

As I had to catch a flight in the morning, I needed to set a wake-up alarm but with my phone out of order and no watch on my arm, I was once again at my wits’ end. Have you noticed that wall clocks are seemingly becoming superfluous?

I ended up sleeping with my laptop open, checking the time every couple of hours – technology to the rescue.

Techonology is imperative to advancement – in the fields of research, development and progression. And so, while it has its negatives, these are far outweighed by its positives.

We have no choice but to try and keep up with new technology which floods the market, seemingly, on a daily basis. To complain would be prehistoric, right? But while we applaud its virtues, let us not forget that life is about far more than that.