It is uncommon to be more than an arms length away from a technological device in our lives today at any given time. Walking to an appointment or class has turned into a time where you are also checking e-mails, responding to phone calls, posting a thought on the internet, or reading the latest news on your phone. Just twenty years ago, this task was limited to sitting at a desk in front of a computer. The ease of technology can be great news for maximizing your time and doing easy tasks while on-the-go, but is starting to show alarming effects on how we live our lives.
Christine Rosen, in her article “In the Beginning Was the Word”, put it best when she asserted that “We live in a world of continuous partial attention, one that prizes speed and brandishes the false promise of multi-tasking as a solution to our time management challenges.” Our generation, a generation that has always grown up with technology as one of their most important tools, is graduating from college and beginning to enter into the work force and we are finding ourselves overwhelmed. The very technology we have praised relentlessly for making it faster and easier to finish a job, is also sucking away our lives.
We live in a world that is constantly connected to everything. It is becoming increasingly harder to turn-off, so to speak, different areas of our lives and concentrate on an important task or job. It is argued that a balanced life makes one more well off in life, but all it takes is one notification to distract us from the task at hand.
Even more alarming, this technology that we are using and connecting to is even beginning to become our reality. Author Daniel Boorstin observed that the virtual reality we are beginning to live in is taking shape into our new reality of life. “Every day seeing there and hearing there takes the place of being there” Boorstin noted.
Technology is key in our lives, I do not think this will change any time soon, but I think it is important for us to keep in mind the effects continuously being connected to technology. It is increasingly more important to keep focused on our goals in life, and not allow technology to over-take our abilities to life our lives independent from technology.