I recently wrote a blog entry about the
relationship we have with technology, and how I fear a future that is similar to that depicted in films like Wall-E and Surrogates. This is definitely still a worry of mine (although I don't think I'll still be alive if it were to ever occur) but I recently read something that contradicted my sentiments about our relationship with digital connectivity.
The term is
Bionic Noticing, and the statement was this:
"Our personal technologies light up our
surroundings in different ways. They let us refocus the world
around us. This is "bionic noticing". An example might be the way
carrying around a camera phone, and feeling a regular need to upload
interesting stuff to a service like Flickr, makes you pay more
attention to your surroundings. Five minutes in a queue becomes an
opportunity to notice the inconspicuous intriguing textures and
greebles of your environment, and, bagging and tagging them, to share
those moments of noticing with your friends and win some mild, informal
kudos."
So where I viewed the rise in tech relationship we have with our iPods, iPhones, Blackberry's, mobiles, Nintendo DS's etc., as a threat to human relationships, the aforementioned statement implies that it's not all negative, and our gadgets aren't
really coming between Us and the Real World.
So are all these gadgets enhancing our lives? Are they improving our life skills? There are arguments for and against, definitely, and I would love to get your feedback.
