Addicted to...Technology

As I was pondering a topic for this month’s technology article, I read a story in the local newspaper that piqued my interest. The news story is about a family in Guelph who has shunned technology for a time and are trying to live as if it were 1986. The title for this month’s article comes from one of the hit songs in 1986 “Addicted To Love” which I have taken creative liberties as it seems completely appropriate to use “Addicted to Technology” as the headline.

I started to read what I considered to be a light-hearted article and as I did so, I realized that this thought of being addicted to technology is a very fundamental theme for my blog. I not only appreciate technology but in a lot of ways, I’d be completely lost without it. The technologies that the family refused to use such as cellphones, email, Google or a GPS, well, it makes me shudder at the thought of being without it.

The question isn’t if we could live without technology – humans and society evolves. Should there be a catastrophe and there was no technology, then people would adapt and innovate. A case in point is during the recent ice storm and the lack of power that so many families endured. I read another article about a man who was creative enough to garner power from his electric car to run some basic electricity into his house. Although a complete and permanent meltdown of our society’s power grid would be completely catastrophic, through time, people would adapt.

How easy we would adapt is another issue though. As a “boomer”, it might be easier for myself to adapt when I have a history of an earlier (and much younger!) life where technology was not so prevalent. I can make change from a $5.00 bill, I know how to read a paper map and after adjustment, I’d be okay. My biggest fear would be that I’ve have to resort to pen and paper to write – either that, or find some nifty manual typewriter, reams of paper and plethora of liquid paper for the inevitable mistakes!

Each of us would probably have our own particular challenges but I wonder how difficult it would be for the younger generation when all that they know is technology. I can’t even begin to imagine how difficult an eFree society would be for those 35 years old and younger.

In this power-free scenario, the current infrastructure of our society would be devastated and completely useless. For some aspects, the chaos would be short term and in other respects it could take years and even decades to “rebuild”. Give it 25-30 years though, mankind – being as resilient as they are – would pick up the pieces and find alternative ways to run society.

Pity be the current generations should this occur though – the current blackouts in Toronto during the snowstorm has truly illustrated how dependent we are on this technology which remains – a double sided coin of the good and the bad.