By Laura Sanicola
Last week, I was standing in line at the drugstore with a basket filled entirely of pizza-flavored Pringles, and I couldn’t help but notice a middle-aged man adjacent to me, talking to himself
and wearing a thick headpiece that looked like a gadget out of a Spy Kids movie. Though I have been warned time and time again by magazines, newspapers and the like that the age of wearable technology is upon us, my first experience seeing a man wear Google Glass stopped me in my tracks.
“Glass, send Debra an email,” he said, and momentarily smiled in delight. I quickly paid for my Pringles and left, disappointed that this glimpse into the future of our technologically advancing society didn’t give me pangs of delight but instead left me feeling nauseous.
This article runs the risk of portraying me as a cynical conspiracy theorist and technology hater, which I can assure you is not entirely the case. I have typed these words on my new MacBook Pro and have my iPhone plugged into the wall next to me. I am glued to practical applications such as CNN and Weather.com, as well as useless ones such as TimeHop and Solitaire.
Although I cannot deny that I would probably be the last woman riding in a horse-drawn carriage during the dawn of automobiles or one complaining that television is nothing more than a fad in the 1940s, it is impossible for me not to appreciate my beloved electronic devices, which allow me to post pictures of Fordham’s campus on a spring day on Instagram and watch television at my leisure.
My issue with the new wearable technology comes from a fear of being eternally “plugged in.” Technology’s purpose is to facilitate and to simplify, to lessen the time and effort required to perform a task and perform it well. However, the less time it takes to perform a task, the more tasks the world expects you to perform. As technology becomes more efficient, you become more productive. You can work for more hours, complete more tasks, attend more meetings, fill out more spreadsheets and do anything, anytime, anywhere. For those of you who live to work, the latest updates and gadgets will, more often than not, be to your advantage. For the rest of us, it means being “plugged in” at all times will soon be commonplace, and my fear — perhaps unwarranted — is that we will enter a perpetual state of work.
The effects of advancing technology have caused me to lose my patience, to demand immediacy and to deal with added stress in my already hectic life. Gone are the days where I could designate a time to check my emails and voicemail every day.
With the widespread use of smartphones with email apps, we are expected to be constantly available to everyone, and most importantly, to our superiors. I personally know that if my emails were not forwarded to my phone, I would miss out on claiming top stories in our weekly news budget.
“The most innovative technology the world has seen in decades.” This phrase frequently appears in articles above a picture of a flashy new phone, computer, watch or laptop. However, as a society, we should know by now that just because a technology is novel, it is not necessarily beneficial to us.
It seems that we are at a crossroads in our civilization where we must take responsibility for the way technology affects our lives and use it in a way that allows us to retain control.
My advice is not to buy a device you do not need just because advertising agencies seem convincing that “this is the future.”
Decide for yourself what lifestyle you want to lead and what tools you will need, or the world will decide for you — and the world will always choose the lifestyle that allows you to produce the most because productivity puts dollars in everyone’s pockets.
Laura Sanicola is Assistant News Editor at The Fordham Ram.
