Is Technology Destroying Us?

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223790

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I deleted my Facebook account almost 2 months ago and it was the best thing I ever did. I can't believe how much extra time I have now. I don't miss it at all. Most of the people I was "friends" with on there were friends of mine 15-20 years ago. What do I care if they are going out for dinner, buying a new guitar, or going on vacation? I would rather focus on the people who are my friends today than waste time with those that were my friends, but no longer are. I didn't like how FB was taking over face to face conversation. Personally I prefer face to face conversation and if that is too much trouble for people, then we really aren't friends anymore.

I have never sent a text message in my life. I have a basic cell phone for emergencies that I use maybe 1-2 times per month for a few minutes. I only use the Internet for work, e-mail and my one guilty pleasure which is this website.

Personally, I hate the way that technology has taken over. It can never ever replace good old fashioned human contact.

BTW - watch the CNBC special "The Facebook Obsession". It will scare the shit out of you and have you running to your computer to delete your FB account. Mark Zuckerberg is an immoral low life thieving scumbag in my opinion.
 

_Jonesy

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Mark Zuckerberg was a kid who found a way to revolutionise the way we interact and make a lot of money out of it. I don't think he intended for the negatives and got excited by the potential.

I hope deleting it has a similar impact on me, as I think FB should be classed as a drug for the effect it has on the hearts and minds of people.
 

rangisrovus19

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This is what I like to call the Technology Bug. As I believe mostly everything that has been mentioned, both the pros and cons of it all, at the end of the day I still think that the cons over power the pros. One of the main reasons for this is the unknown health effects that our technology may inflict upon us. Having an iPhone 4 is neat and all, but I don't like the fact that it sits snug against my ear, doing lord knows what on a cellular level to my brain... Do you think cell phone companies would admit that there are harmful side affects from using their products? Absolutely not - they are taking over the world right now! That's all that is on TV ads now - cell phone services. It is just like Jonesy mentioned before about cigarettes. Did cigarette companies decades ago come out and say "WHOOPS. Hey ya'll, don't do that. We found out it's bad". Uh, no, they didn't. Still don't.

Besides the (potential negative) affect on our physical health, I think we can even today see signs of the toll it is taking on our mental health. Not just cell phones, but technology in general. Just read everything in the previous posts above this one - clearly it is effecting our mental state and balance. Whenever I see my little cousins on their parents' iPhones, and acting like this device is the coolest thing ever - THIS worries me because if you have the world in the palm of your hand, then what is the point of exploring everything else the world has to offer? I don't want to see the generations below me enslaved to our technology, and by the looks of it, it seems to be happening.

Jonesy - if you haven't seen Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, then you must.

oh and you're super cute and non-golds should be considered ;)
 

Bbucko

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Very well written Bbuck and sorry if I sounded like I was generalising, I will explain. Like you said, you are post-modernist therefore, you still have the option to phone a friend and organise to meet up and have a good catch-up where my reality is very different in that everybody my age revolves around Facebook.

The idea is this:
1. Meet the person, or bypass this and simply add randomer to Facebook.
2. Talk to the person/Add to FB if not done already, ask for number.
3. Texting, phone calls, arrange a date.
4. Pretty traditional post-that.

But how it is affecting me, and my generation is thus:

Attention seeking. Facebook is becoming a way of asking for attention, saying "I don't feel well" or "I'm miserable" constantly just to get replies. Several times I have proceeded to say Hi, you ok? On chat and they reply as if nothing is wrong.

As for people in a relationship, it has only ever generated a stalker-esque tendency causing arguments and breakups over nothing. Imaginations can run wild with people my age and even older, one photo with a female friend can cause a massive argument, pain, tears. It is not worth it. It breaks down trust.

It is also a big scene for showing off. So many people to compare to and be compared by, I feel uncomfortable with that. Also it is a security risk, I don't want everybody knowing where I live and having an easy method of grieving me.

Also, as said, it is a very good tool for procrastinating.

You focused on your post very much on video/music/computers which is technology I am fine with. I think perhaps I should have titled this thread about Social Networking from the beginning, but believe me, I am already finding myself wanting to go onto FB with no real intention. When I realise I can't, I go talk to my flatmates or I open a book/do some work. This is the result I wanted. Sure it has limited my ability to communicate with people, but I don't think FB is necessary. I still have my mobiley :)

Thanks for your thoughtful reply, _Jonesy.

I think the reason why I focused on entertainment and being the end-user of IT at work is because, to a large extent, that's how the tech revolution has actually effected me. I went off on a tangent and neglected to include FB in the post, for reasons I'll express better below.

The issues you've expressed with social networking are absolutely spot-on: the medium is largely a platform for narcissists to elevate themselves and/or court attention. Social networking is also a way of manipulating the user into both behavior modification and to over-share, which makes it a powerful marketing tool (and has made Zuckerberg a billionaire). These are all reasons to be contemptuous of the concept and to not let it intrude unduly in your life.

Narcissists will always find ways of finding the most flattering mirror for themselves. Right now they have FB; five years ago they did the same thing (and much more obnoxiously, IMO) on MySpace, with those dreadful, illegible wallpapers and blaring, ratty-ass music. Back in the 80s and 90s there were certain unbearably pretentious bars I avoided like the plague that gave them a mis-en-scene. FB in contrast, is sleek, impersonal and rather corporate in a one-size-fits-all sorta way. As I've never fit anything labeled as universal, it's easy for me to take a sniff, dislike the odor and (mostly) opt out.

I created a FB profile at the behest of a much-younger man (22 years my junior) whom I was seeing off and on about 3-4 years ago; he felt that doing so was absolutely necessary to my social skill set. It was only later that I more-or-less figured out that he just wanted to keep tabs on me, and felt that was the most effective means of doing so. Subsequent experience with a man in his early 30s confirmed this: when he "broke up" with me after my having called him out as a fraud, his first request was that I defriend him on FB :rolleyes:

Aside from those experiences, FB is both an annoyance and a useful communication tool that I visit perhaps twice monthly (if that). There are some people with whom I stay in contact via FB from the time I lived in France (21 years ago) and that's a pleasure (IMing in French is a bitch, though). Then there are those strange notes and friendship requests either from utter strangers or from people from High School who wouldn't have spoken to me on a $100 dare 35 years ago; some I ignore, some I'll accept (and then ignore). Really suspicious ones get blocked.

There was a time, not so very long ago, when LPSG was strictly a message board (albeit with chat). I well remember the outcry when "friends" and "groups" were first introduced: many were afraid that such social networking features would prove to be a net-negative, but I remain very neutral on the subject. Currently my "friend" list here is about 70% people with whom I've had very little if any direct communication, but who evidently visit my profile page often. It does me no harm, so I let it be.

As a side note, of the three most prolific posters I know of on FB, only one is truly narcissistic (and he's 41); one is an entrepreneur in his late 30s who networks all of his different causes and ventures there; and one is a few years older than me, highly esteemed in the HIV community due to a high-profile job but is more exhibitionistic than narcissistic. He's really a great guy, despite his obsessive FB updating (and it truly is obsessive).

If you, for whatever reason, feel as though FB is harming your life by enabling certain negative behaviors, cut it out of your life. There was life before FB and somehow we'll struggle on when it becomes as anachronistic as MySpace is now.
 

_Jonesy

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Well said again, and agreed to the fullest. I do not so much agree with comparing FB to clubs or equivalents of old. While people would 'update their status' in a club by eccentric acts or dress styles which still happen today anyway, there was no way to - as an odd metaphor - go up to somebody, unbutton their shirt and read about their location, friends and see what they were doing privately. It is stalking, and last I heard stalking was illegal. Of course it is not illegal on FB because of the fact the profile owner can choose what is on but this line is becoming blurred as now we can only detag ourselves from FB which means a cunning stalker can still find those photos.

Facebook is dangerous, yet it is become a necessity, just like in your anecdote. Like I said, that screams addiction. That screams a need, a reliance on knowing everything about someone.

In a year or two, people like me who do not own a FB account will be seen as people with something to hide and be suspicious of, which is wrong.

@rangisrovus - Thank you for the almost hidden compliment :p I only became a gold member the other day in fact.

I did actually cringe when I saw my neighbour of about 6 years old wielding a mobile phone when I had only begun to need one when I was 16. I think there used to be a charm to sending letters, also. Plus I believe a healthy relationship requires some distance and space so one does not become consumed by their emotions like it has me in the past.
 

Pendlum

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Awesome MG avatar, rang.

I think saying that Facebook has become a necessity is way off base. Even in a few years I don't see that being the case. But I agree that it can be dangerous, so is twitter. The info provided by both of those sites not only allows for stalking, but it also allows thieves to know when you are not home.

Look on the bright side, people 'requiring' you to have a facebook account is a great litmus test for whether or not they are really someone you want to be friends with.
 

D_Salvatore Speedbump

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I dunno i think there's more to the facebook, social networking site, tech story than what we're seeing today. I image facebook as a large poster board that anyone can write on and anyone can see. Its only that some get addicted to it and some stay away from it. Just like some people have never touched a drug in their life while others cant seem to live without it. Now i'm now gonna say that mark zuckerberg needs to start handing out facebook arm patches because he was the creator of it. While he does share some of the responsibility of it helping to destroy and/completely altering lives. I also think that to fix any problem you first have to ask yourself why the problem started.

Hell on this social networking site alone you have people lying about their penis sizes/ sexuality. People stalking others and people who come on here for the sole purpose of pissing other people off. I'm pretty sure the creator of this site had no idea this would happen but it does. Why? People thats why.

People discriminate for thee simplest and dumbest of reasons. Most of which are just generalizations based on either something they've seen first hand, something they've heard or somehow by osmosis. We all exclude certain types of people because of what we "think" "guess" or what we're "told". Now what about all those people? Where do they go when they feel excluded and isolated from their respect groups. Well they flock to the interwebs thats where. Why? Because they feel they have a better chance at being accepted by....at least someone.

The net is a dangerous place. Difference is though that place was created by us. Just like the world we live in. Seriously, crack heads don't wake up an go "hey i think i'll adapt an addiction to a drug that will either kill me, get me killed or just plain ruin the rest of my life. All of this stuff is like domino's.

Hell just look at it from a female perspective. If you didn't have "the ideal" body type wouldn't you need someone to talk to. If you were a guy with a small penis and had been repeatedly rejected by women, wouldn't that turn into something you couldn't quite deal with. People get addicted to facebook and...sites like this one because there's something missing in their own lives. Its crazy to say but people are missing people. While things like facebook and others are problems. A larger more pressing problem is our lack of human compassion towards each other. Now i'm not saying we should all go out an hug a homeless person cause....yeah. Just that with every action there's a reaction. Facebook addiction and the craze that follows it is only the reaction.

Ask yourself this. Why do people think they NEED facebook in the first place.
 

FuzzyKen

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Is Technology Destroying Us? YOU BET IT IS. . . .

I am probably one of the older men using this board. I am 58 years old and because of that I have more life experience than many.

The first place that technology is destroying us is in our schools:

When I was going through school we had to actually learn how to do things. I had to learn and be tested on math skills, english and communications skills, history, geography, political science, and I had to learn the subjects myself. I had the great misfortune and I must admit great anger when I watched a local High School english teacher talking to one of my nieces. I was floored when the teacher asked the question: "Why didn't you use spell check?"

Each successive generation is not becoming more intelligent, each successive generation is instead becoming more and more dependent on the marvels of the microchip to even make decisions. We are not teaching children math or the other subjects, we to the great delight of Bill Gates are teaching them how to operate computers!

Examples of how bad we are destroying things:

Many fast food restaurants are no longer using conventional cash registers. The employee pushes buttons representing the food order and the machine does everything. The dumb kid does not even learn how to run a conventional register.

The United States Military is now being FORCED to sell a great many of their vehicles. Is it the fact that a M35A2 Deuce and a half is obsolete? No my friends, it is because the kids of today are as a whole unable to drive anything that does not have an automatic transmission, power steering and "cup-holders". I have a friend in the maintenance division of the National Guard. To give themselves time, the military went in and took a percentage of the M35A2 3 axle deuce trucks and made them into "M35A3's" What was the difference? They removed the multi-fuel engine and substituted a small straight diesel, they removed the 5-speed manual transmission with that nasty thing called a "clutch" and substituted a $7,000 Allison automatic transmission. They added "air-assist" power steering, and the list goes on and on and on.

Right after College, in the first years of the 1970's I bought one of my first real muscle cars. It was a fire engine red 1966 Dodge Coronet 440 with a 426 Hemi and a 4-speed. (At that time they were not yet worth the mint that they are now, I paid $2,700 for that car) Most kids today in our "techno" world could not manage that car. They would have to get off their fat rear ends, get away from the PC and get enough exercise to be able to have the strength in their left leg to depress that really heavy clutch.

One of the biggest problems we are having in the United States is that young people do not remember one of the most important lessons that translates across for today.

In the earlier years of television there were things called "Quiz Shows". The American Public was easily "duped" into believing that they were real when they were in fact rehearsed and "fixed". The whole thing finally broke when a contestant goofed on the show "Dotto". A contestant left behind what in essence was a "cheat sheet" and it was found by another contestant. That man took the cheat sheet to the press. A kinescope was run of the show and the answers the contestant gave exactly matched the cheat sheet. That created a disaster. Many people were destroyed and they were destroyed because they believed everything that came from the tube. Charles Revson, the owner of Revlon Cosmetics always denied involvement, but evidence tends to indicate he was involved because as the sponsor he made millions off of the manipulations.

Today it is no different, because of the speed of the Internet and the ability to get something around the world in minutes, one can get things out there representing it as news when in fact the accuracy is subject to question.

While one side claims the media is liberal, the facts are that the largest media outlets are owned by some of the most conservative corporations in history and the liberal media is not manipulated by liberals.

We have instant food, you drive through a fast fooder, speak into a microphone, and five minutes later you're being handed your order.

We have instant banking where you make deposits and withdrawals without leaving your car, trusting a machine and rarely even counting your change.

We have Internet trading of stocks and securities where we risk everything without ever meeting another human being. We pay our bills on line and these days the U.S. Postal Service has morphed into a less than reliable fantasy of what it used to be.

We go into the supermarket and we are bombarded with scanners that substitute for cash registers that have a surprisingly high percentage of errors in pricing, but, because it is computer run we rarely question things.

In 1965 My Father purchased a brand new Buick Electra 225 and paid about $5,000 for that car. In 1976 I purchased a Chrysler Cordoba brand new and I bought a loss leader that was a bargain at $6,000. At that time the average finance contract on a new car was 36 months or 3 years. Today, a Chrysler 300 sedan with a base hemi V8 and reasonable options will set you back about $30,000.

I December of 2009 I sold a 2002 Ford F-550 custom hauler pickup with 140,000 miles on it with all the options for $25,000. I sold it because I had an offer on that truck that was very fair. A brand new replacement for that truck will set me back $65,000.

In the years between 1965 and 1976 automobiles saw a relatively mild increase in price. When the technology became mandatory for reasons of pollution and safety the cost of those vehicles skyrocketed. Technology is something we are paying through the nose for, and it is not always worth it.

Many retailers these days refer to the Wii's and PS3's as "Demon Product" because no matter what it costs the kids have to have it and people actually fight over this stuff.

The next thing that we see with these devices is that to me at least there appears to be a far more sinister game being played. Mot of the games available involve extreme violence, war games, death, killing of other human beings, driving on streets in a wreckless manner, or other activities that set a poor example. The sophistication of some of the war games is incredible at teaching a kid how to kill another human being or to function as a "sniper" and nobody seems to see what is going on here. . . .

Technology will not be controlled by us in the near future. We will be controlled by technology and it will be soon.

This week we have had artificial intelligence competing on the television show Jeopardy against human beings. The artificial intelligence is in fact holding it's own in calculated thought against human beings.

Remember the HAL 9000 from 2001 A Space Odyssey? How about "Colossus the Forbin Project" where a single computer nearly took over the world. There are people out there who know that computers may soon progress to where that can happen.

Remember also that most of our government infrastructure is also dependent on technology in an unhealthy way including national defense.

I am not advocating a return to the 1950's here, but someone has to come in and realize that the term G.I.G.O. (Garbage In Garbage Out) can take over and control anything including National Elections, Power Grids, Military Orders to Soldiers in the field, orders to Law Enforcement Agencies and all the rest.

The danger is not the technology itself, but the corrupting of that technology for power or wealth and we are already seeing that. What will stop it from going the rest of the way.



 

helgaleena

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Technology in general is different from Facebook and its predecessors, which are only just a medium of communication among many. The advantage is that it is something which is known globally. The disadvantage is that it's a gimmick, in a long line of gimmicks.

Technology doesn't grow food or hunt and gather in the urban jungle. People do those things. And corporations are like people, but have no ethics beyond those of the people who think they are steering them. Corporations can grow to global size and scale, while people can only eat so many meals and sleep in so many beds at night. We have physical limits which corporations do not.

My company of choice, Dark Roast Press, uses Facebook. We don't do anything there that costs us money though, and most of the authors do not use it for actual social interaction. It's for advertising and connecting with others of like interests and aims, that is, to publish and promote. We have noms de plume and literary identities completely different from our private and family lives.
 
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223790

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Facebook is dangerous, yet it is become a necessity.

Sorry man, I've got to disagree with you there. We are led to believe it is a necessity, but there was life before Facebook and I can tell you from experience that there is life after it. I've been FB free for almost 2 months now, and the people who truly are my friends stay in touch with me by phone and via e-mail.

I meant to mention in my last post that employers are checking applicants on FB before hiring them. I'll bet that a lot of poeple have lost out on job opportunities because of FB.
 

D_Tilly_De_Toilet

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Many fast food restaurants are no longer using conventional cash registers.

The dumb kid does not even learn how to run a conventional register.

We have instant banking where you make deposits and withdrawals without leaving your car, trusting a machine and rarely even counting your change.

We go into the supermarket and we are bombarded with scanners that substitute for cash registers that have a surprisingly high percentage of errors in pricing, but, because it is computer run we rarely question things.

Okay, okay, we'll go back to using "conventional" cash registers. Sheesh. :rolleyes:
 

silvertriumph2

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I have been mulling over much of what is being discussed here for a very long time.
Maybe I will get off my butt and do something more than just think about them.
When I get it together, I will return and post my thoughts.....

Great Thread!
 

_Jonesy

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Sorry man, I've got to disagree with you there. We are led to believe it is a necessity, but there was life before Facebook and I can tell you from experience that there is life after it. I've been FB free for almost 2 months now, and the people who truly are my friends stay in touch with me by phone and via e-mail.

I meant to mention in my last post that employers are checking applicants on FB before hiring them. I'll bet that a lot of poeple have lost out on job opportunities because of FB.
You misunderstand. People not involved know it is no necessity, yet the people on FB feel it is. I've already met one person and when I told them I no longer had FB, they said why? And I haven't heard from them since where if I did have it, it could be a different matter. I am in a minority of people my own age who feel they are better off without, not because they know they need it but because they do not know otherwise.

Diary Day 1


Ok I'll admit. I found the first day or two difficult. It wasn't that I wanted to be online, but rather through force of habit I would search to open FB and then realise it was gone. I had no real need to go on it, it was purely procrastination. As an alternative, I wrote a post on here and made some food. Success!

I did cheat a few days after though. I did go on for a reason though. I needed to send somebody a mail, as I had no way to contact them otherwise. This shows a positive of FB, but I had no desire to stay online so I just closed it and redeleted it afterwards. Simples.

I'll report back in a few more days when I find out what it has been like after a week.
 

willow78

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Technology (the internet in particular) has helped me connect with other people but at the same time it has not improved my real life skills. Once I 'log off', those connections are gone and I have to face the real world - a real world where I have great difficulty meeting people, making friends and relating to people because I am actually a very shy person. Even on the internet I am unable to 'make the first move' - I respond to someone else's post or thread or profile but I don't put myself out there first. I didn't post any face pics until I'd been here for 3 years and it was still nerve-wracking. Once I 'log off', I feel lonely because I know those internet connections - as deep as they may be - are with people I will never meet in real life and are connections I could never make in real life.

My feelings are best summed up by this article I read this morning:
Telstra BigPond News and Weather

I think the internet has actually enabled my shyness by making it easier for me to get through day-to-day life without having to face another human being.