The Technology Of Desocialization

Hi ATS,

I've been on ATS for quite some times but never really participated in the forums actively.

However, I've got one important issue I would like to discuss with you guys ATM and I'm looking forward to hear from you guys perspectives.

(For those of you who doesn't feel like reading such a long post, immediately go to point B)

So here's how it goes:

POINT A
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I don't think I will surprise anyone by claiming that the world we live in today is overwhelmingly controlled by technology and materialism, at least for a vast majority of countries around the globe.
It is grealty magnificent in terms of possiblity but also very frightening.

The reason I oppose this duality is extremely important because it easily demonstrates the paradox of all living beings on planet earth: capable of marvelous and horrible things at the same time.
Although most species will do the 'horrible aspect' solely for survival and sustainment of their own specy, there is clearly something different about the reasoning of the human race.

What I mean here is that we are a conscious specy, aware of the choices we make and the impact they have on the environment, other living creatures and us. Too many times in history have we seen a great invention or idea turned into something dark and evil even though the main goal was to make us evolve and progress (let's just mention the discovery of the atom - and the creation of the atomic bomb).

Now I know a lot of people will say that it is a necessary step, that it is the only way to learn and move forwards into the long cycle of evolution. I would tend to agree with that statement because, you know, we have to put our hand into the fire to understand it is not meant to be touched directly, but rather be close to it.
However, this truth doesn't in any way diminish the importance of balance in life.
Balance in nature, in love, in wealth, in food, in entertainment, in work, in relationship, in physical exercice, etc.

My point is that we need equilibrium to move forward in life and this is true in everything you could come to think of.

Recently I've come to realize that in the modern world we have created for ourselves, everything is now done in one opposite or another. Nothing (or almost) is done in balance and harmony, just like Nature has teached us for so many centuries (and is still trying to do). Everything is pushed to the maximum (thanks to greed) to have the best benefits or productive curve. Even more than that, people whether live in the past or in the future. I do not know of a lot of people nowadays speaking openly about the importance of living the present moment in life. Who would have time anyway, when everything is going so fast and always faster?

POINT B
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So, that's where the main idea of my topic comes into place:
The technology we have today, and the way we use it, has already reached a point where it has exceeded our capacity to adapt. The abused use and creations we made out of it have obviously been done in one exteme to another. There has been absolutely no balance at all. It has evolved so fast it has completely blinded us to what was the original goal of technology in the first place, that is to say, making a world where it feels good to live and where it is easy to communicate with other people and also travel all around the world.

The way I see it, technology has completely separated us from other beings and even ourselves. Nature (and animals) has also been include in the let down. We are actively destroying it for the sake of human progress and in the pursuit of knowledge. But no matter how much we hurt Nature and the things around us, it will never be as much as the pain we inflict to ourselves. I see more and more people everyday being sucked into this huge fabrication of social networks (aka Facebook, Twitter, etc) and less and less people looking at each other in the eyes and smiling.
Not to say that the technology itself is to blame, but rather the use we make out of it.

Let me give you 2 very simple examples of situations I've experienced recently. Both of them only in the last month.

#1
I'm walking in the park with one my good friend. We talk about anything and really appreciate looking at the night sky.
Suddenly, I see a young couple watching over for their little daughter, around 8 years old, sitting next to them... in a carousel (not sure of the exact word since english isn't my main language). A very normal sight for a girl this age, so what is wrong will you ask?

The fact is that this little girl was actually looking at her cellphone during the whole process of the roundabout. A cellphone at the age of 8, bought by their lovely parents. I don't think there is anymore to add to this story for you guys to understand my point...

#2
I'm in my school with some classmates, waiting for the teacher and the next class just in front of the closed door. I talk with two of my male friends when I decide to look around myself to suddenly realize that all five girls around me are looking silently at their cellphones. Shocked I say to them '' Hey girls, what is it about that boys talk and have fun while you girls are all looking at your dead screens, doing nothing? ''. Then, only one of the girls thought necessary to lift her head simply to smile and immediately get back on her useless business.
At this precise moment I thought to myself: ''WTFFFFFFFF, this can't be true''

And we could go on with personal stories like these forever....

So, I'm asking you this ATS,

what is going on in the world today? Have people really come to the point they do not want to interact with each other anymore? What is it these new technologies offer us we find it appropriate to just don't give a !!!!! anymore?

I could go on forever giving examples of how technology affects us in a negative way that it would take me all the night to just think of them. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying technology is bad or absolutely evil, but simply putting in perspective the way we use it in 2013 and where this might lead us in the next decades.

Are we seeing a technology of desocialization?

Please ATS,

enlight me,

StOrD.

reply to post by St0rD


Wow, what an incredibly thoughful post. This kind of thinking is why I value this site.

Is desocialization technology occuring? Absolutely. One of the first and loudest indicators was the advent of "Reality TV" starting in the 1990's. Regular social interactions and drama, which was available to most people just by living, was now being delivered through media, disconnecting people from their desire to find these same things in their lives, and isolating them.

From a market perspective, the quandary is this: What people really want, it turns out, what they dream of, more than fast cars, viagra, new technology and triple rewards points cash back, its EACH OTHER. Its connection, its validation in who they are. It could be naked in the woods with no possessions for all people care. That's what people dream of, and every market innovation succeeds only with the promise of delivering this to people: Love, connection with others, respect and meaning.

So increasingly, new products try to provide this, though in artificial ways. Social networks connects you with people, as do cell phones. But in connecting us with far away people, they do just as you say, preventing us from forming the new and satisfying bonds with new people we would have before, the people who are around us but we ignore while checking our phones.

All in all it is, in some ways, a terrifying picture once you've seen it, but its also an incredibly empowering one. Once you know what people long for, you find yourself in the position to give it. Love, respect, connection. You realize that the force, the power of the dreams these highest companies like Facebook try to provide, has always been in your hands to give to people around you. And once you see that, all the sudden you don't seem so small in the face of these huge technological forces at work in the world....

peace!

Mother Shipton or whomever long long ago...

When man will only think of greed.
And man shall walk as if asleep;
He does not look - he may not peep And iron men the tail shall do;
And iron cart and carriage too.

We are happy with simpler simulations...

Don't let the MCP (Master Control Program) find this out!!

Technology so owns us....

reply to post by St0rD


We have become so efficient at automating the duties of living, that our lives are now obsolete to technology... but that is only meaningful if you believe our purpose is a duty that technology has, in fact, made obsolete.

If our purpose is to experience, then technology just changes what is experienced, not the actual event of experiencing.

The topic really speaks to what you hold dear. You think social interaction is of a higher regard than other interactions. Why?

Is the kid doing life wrong because she would rather experience whatever her phone is doing rather than what the merry-go-round is doing? If so, why?

Reality is about [good] concept reproduction. Your version of good is different from the girls with their phones, but you are both just trying to produce your concept of what is good. Nothing is wrong, unless their version is unjust [good].

@tridentblue

I like the way you put into perspective the relation of our natural instinct towards socialization and the abuse the inventors of these technologies make out of it. You are right by saying that the realization of the power we have in our hands is the key to bring back harmony and balance. Very well put, mate.

There was an episode of SeaQuest DSV where they went to the future. There, they found people never leaving their homes and only interacting via the computer and large robots.

There's a great quote from the last episode of the new Battlestar Galactica that I think applies:

If there's one thing that we should have learned, it's that... you know, our brains have always outraced our hearts. Our science charges ahead, but our souls lag behind.

I think we are giving birth to "the machines" -- just as the Earth gave birth to us. The question then, in my mind is; how will our technological children treat us?

I certainly hope that our technology treats us better than we've treated and treat the Earth.

As an older person, I can relate.

Before the early 1990's none of this social networking technology existed. With its intoduction, the world changed immediately, and forever.

It used to be that you didn't sit still from the time you got out of school, until you sat down for dinner. Some of the evenings, though, I remember just being stir crazy, for lack of anything in the house I hadn't already read.

Just the thought of having every library in the world right there on my desk was beyond incredible. Unfortunately, there's point, an age group, and younger, that will never know that kind of solitude, and take the abundance of everything for granted.

The first person I ever "chatted" with online was a kid from Brazil, and remember being shocked at how perfect his English was, and what a genuinely polite, and cool human being he was.

For all the good, forward, I'm not sure we have any idea, yet, what we've done to ourselves. It may be a generation before the damage is even known. By then it could be unavoidable and irreversible.

Wish I had more to say, than I understand.

Thanks for the OP

MystikMushroom
The question then, in my mind is; how will our technological children treat us?

I certainly hope that our technology treats us better than we've treated and treat the Earth.

edit on 27-10-2013 by MystikMushroom because: (no reason given)

Very good analogy you made there my friend.

Also a strong question which we certainly already know the answer, right?

reply to post by MystikMushroom

MystikMushroom
There was an episode of SeaQuest DSV where they went to the future. There, they found people never leaving their homes and only interacting via the computer and large robots.

The movie Surrogates was like that too.

"Surrogates" - Official Trailer [HQ]
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGwQ74cH5O0
www.youtube.com...

reply to post by St0rD


I just wrote a board post here:
ATS: TLDR Mentality vs. the Previous "No One-Liner" Mentality

The technology we have today, and the way we use it, has already reached a point where it has exceeded our capacity to adapt.

Absolutely. This conversation topic has come up with my friends and I on more than one occasion. Did you know that without the internet, the Arab Spring protests would have likely not taken place? The sudden onset of networking technology has caused civil unrest throughout the world.

Although this civil unrest is likely for the best, as we can see, we have already approached or passed the limit at which human society is able to adapt to technological advances.

I think in the future, corporations and inventors are not going to be limited by the technology they are able to acquire, but instead, especially if they are planning on mass-marketing some of this stuff, they might very well be limited in what they can do based on how fast the human race can adapt.

For example, we are still recovering from having instant access to information on the internet and also from networking involving cell phones, text messages, instant messages and Facebook. Then Google Glass decides that it wants to release these headsets that allow us so many more invasive options.

Market data. Are people going to want to have their life more invaded than it already is? What happens if Google Glass flops because people actually don't want it around? That will have an economic impact on future advances in technology, because Google Glass could end up losing a lot of money.

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Now, if the main thing that humans had to adapt to was instant access to information and networking, once we are adapted to those, we might not have problems with technological advances in the same vein.

However, if the program for the following years was like so:

2014: Introduce cybernetics and mind-machine interfaces, so you can surf the web in your brain, and interact telepathically with others

2015: Start introducing a clone labor force into the world

2016: Enhanced cybernetics, including weapons systems and such and hardened body armor, downloadable skill sets (like in The Matrix)

2017: Teleportation technology, resulting in instant travel time to friends houses or anywhere all over the world

2018: Access to stargate technolgy by the general public, including colonization of new worlds

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As you can see, that would result in society completely falling apart. But at the same time, I think that our society is going to still be speeding up in technological advances - however, there is the possibility that we just experienced the MOST MAJOR advancement in human society in the history of mankind, and that from now on, things are going to be rather boring.

reply to post by St0rD


If there will be a sign for a zombie apocalypse. You just described IT well brother.

peace.

lernmore
The first person I ever "chatted" with online was a kid from Brazil, and remember being shocked at how perfect his English was, and what a genuinely polite, and cool human being he was.

Hey, at least the guy from Brazil didn't call you a n3wb and start harassing you about your lack of knowledge of the chat interface.

Those times existed in an entirely different universe, it seems like. And not easy to bring back. For example, I am staying at my parent's house at the moment, and it is similar to the past, but without breakfast, lunch, dinner, people coming over, things to get done, it seems rather empty -

I notice a major negative to the new socialization at the moment (which I believe we could adapt to!) and that is genuine friendships and relationships are currently nonexistent and awkward, at best, I think it is a transition period, though.

Data for narcissism prevalence in our society (which unfortunately ended in 2005, which was the year Facebook came out) showed an increase from around 10% narcissists in the 1970's to 40% of society being narcissists in 2005.[

I read a psychological journal last night that was talking about how narcissism (love of self, inability to relate to others) is becoming such an issue that it is affecting the social and economic coherency of the U.S., there were at least three different articles on the subject in that magazine, and it wasn't a themed one.

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That prompted a discussion with my dad about Facebook:

Dad: So people use Facebook to improve their self-image?
Me: Oh God, I don't see how that is possible.

And it isn't possible. It used to be, back in 2005, I totally pimped out my Facebook page and went on adventures to make is super interesting, I got pictures of me snowboarding with hot models and even recorded some pimping punk rock tracks to put on there.

But 8 years later? In 2013?

Posting anything on Facebook is gonna make us all look worse no matter what it is, at least to someone, or we are going to look like narcissists, basically Facebook has ended up defaming all of us to an equal extent, it is hardly the place to go to improve self-image lol.

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And my main point is, apparently things happen in cycles.

lernmore
Just the thought of having every library in the world right there on my desk was beyond incredible. Unfortunately, there's point, an age group, and younger, that will never know that kind of solitude, and take the abundance of everything for granted.

edit on 27-10-2013 by lernmore because: (no reason given)

You couldn't have said it any better­. This is also something life teaches us very early in life, the fact that you need to lose something to really appreciate how much value it had in your life. I don't think it has always been that way, there might be a time when the human race was a lot more conscious of itself and its surrounding, therefore living more in the present moment and less in the mind.

Thanks for your comment.

Any other comments?