After reading up on the latest technology developments to come out of CES 2012, it’s safe to say that there are some truly incredible technologies to appear over the next few years. From 4mm thin TV sets to the latest in laptop killing tablets, smart/internet connected TVs and even a way to make your smartphone almost indestructible (well, waterproof at the very least…)
Reading all of this it’s very easy to get caught up in the whole ‘wow’ factor, but if you look a little bit deeper our need to get our hands on the latest all singing all dancing gadget gives an insight into a future that is more a cause for concern than a reason to say ‘wow’.
Already it’s hard, no, almost impossible for us go a day without checking our smartphones for some form of communication; be it a text, email, tweet, post or BBM. Our obsession with phones is so strong that researchers have come to the conclusion that we invent “phantom” vibrations hoping that we have a message; and if you think about it it’s hard to deny that you’ve ever experienced such “phantom” vibrations.
If you think about the last time you met a group of friends for coffee or for dinner, the first thing at least one person present will do is place their phone on the table occasionally checking for messages. I find this infuriating and unbelievably rude, yet if I think about it it’s hard to deny that we all do this from time to time. Thankfully I’m not alone in this as I recently came across an entertaining dinner game I suggest you play the next time you find yourself in this scenario. Next time you meet with a friend for a drink put your phone in the middle of the table, the first to ‘blink’ by checking their phone picks up the bill. Simple really.
But it’s not just smartphones that are having a slightly worrying effect on the way we communicate with each other. I recently read that the TV remote is soon to become obsolete as TVs become so smart that all we need to do to change channel is talk to them. Our obsession with the internet is also something bordering on unhealthy, brain scans of so-called “internet addicts” show similar results to those of alcohol and cocaine addicts!
Racking my brain to find to come up with a comparison (and trying to avoid the ‘machines taking over the world’ cliché) for this potential future, I found one in an unlikely place; Pixar’s Wall.E. Before you laugh think about it, a future of humans so reliant on technology they’ve become hugely obese and detached from all forms of human contact; doesn’t seem so far fetched anymore does it. I’m not saying Siri is going to try to kill you, but don’t be surprised if it starts telling you what to do.
So what can we do to avoid this grim vision of the future? Simple, technology is fantastic and has all sorts of weird and wonderful uses but it doesn’t have to takeover everything you do. At the end of the day nothing beats a face to face conversation; you are human after all.
