How to Balance Life & Technology
Technology and Smartphone Danger
Every day we use our smartphones as well as all of our other gadgets like Ipods, Ipads, music players, Chromecast, Roku, tablets, smart watches, smart TV's, movie players, computers, laptops, digital picture frames, video games......and the list goes on. We use these everyday items like our lives depend on it. We walk down streets while texting, drive with GPS, hike with headphones on, shop on computers and read books on a Kindle. The beautiful world that we live in is ignored in favor of the shiny piece of technology in our hands.
This is not to say that all technology is out to get us.There are many wonderful and glorious things that technology and innovation have brought us. There are fantastic advances in medicine, improvements in industry, transportation, exploration, computers, entertainment to name a few. We have brought the world together through advances in communications, and that brings to the smartphone. Many people use their smartphone as a powerful tool used in their daily lives. They keep track of their children, speak with work colleagues, run businesses, take pictures, listen to music, read books, do research, find locations or write articles for Hubpages.
We have the positive that smartphones and technology bring us, but we also have to deal with negative.We are getting to the point that we are relying on technology for too much. We use it day and night, 24/7 and are becoming a society that is afraid to cross the street by ourselves, without our smartphone in hand or up to our ear. We put our ear buds in listening to our favorite song on Spotify, ignoring what is happening around us. We can't fall asleep unless the TV is tuned into the Voice. Babysitters are now a movie like Frozen streaming from Netflix to your smart tv. The real world is what some housewife does on a TV reality show. We enter into virtual reality worlds, leaving the real world behind. No longer is it just OK to play music in the car, we need GPS, phones, texting, Bluetooth, DVD players and touchscreen computers telling us which way to turn, our vehicle turns into an rolling apartment or office.
Waiting in a checkout line at a grocery store, a young man waits to buy a soda. The smiling cashier rings up the soda and says, "That's a $1.32". The teenager does not respond, eyes down and ear buds in blasting music, ignoring the cashier. Common courtesy has disappeared.
The family unit is not what it used to be with person to person interaction. Families do not sit around the dinner table to eat and discuss their days anymore. We talk to our loved ones with Texts and Tweets, or if we're lucky a Snap. We speak with our friends through Facebook, meet members of the opposite sex through Match or Tinder, we no longer pin a recipe to a note board, we pin it on, where else? Pinterest. We no longer have to remember anyone's phone number or a birthday, we have notifications for that. We get a reminder, no matter where we are, for our doctor appointment. We don't have to write or even type anymore. We don't have to remember to feed the children any longer, we have Alexa to remind us to do it.
Using technology and smartphones for our daily lives can also lead us straight into danger if not used in a responsible manner. We have laws protecting our roads and highways from drunk drivers in every state, but not laws stopping texting and driving. Many states do not have texting while driving laws, even though many studies show that texting while driving can be worse than driving while intoxicated. Technology is moving forward faster than our government can pass laws to protect us that same technology. Of course, common sense should tell anyone not to text while driving, but that's story is for another Hub.
We can see so many instances of technology being dangerous, maybe we do need more laws passed at a faster rate. Is it the government's job to pass laws protecting us from our own bad choices we make regarding technology and our smartphones? They passed laws that say we have to have a seatbelt on, a helmet on, properly inflated tires, a certain amount of airbags and speed limits. Should our everyday use of a smartphone be regulated by them too?
Technology has made us a society that does not need human interaction. We are afraid to leave the house without our smartphone.
Yes, it is true we need technology, but do we need it to run our everyday lives, be our companion and even our friend? Perhaps the answer to that question is yes and no. We need to find a balance between the use of technology and our daily life. Technology is just like anything else, too much of a good thing is bad. The use of that cliche, fortunately, fits into this issue perfectly. We need to use everything in moderation and find balance in our lives.
We need to learn to put our smartphones down and be part of our world again. This planet is too big and beautiful to not take advantage what Mother Earth has made for us. It's time to unplug from the technological world and connect with the outside world.
Look over at the person standing next to you on the commuter train and say hello. Turn off the TV and play hide and seek with your children. Go for a drive and purposely get lost. Write a letter, put it in an envelope and mail it to your wife. Take a walk on a beach. Climb a tree. Go bird watching with a pair of cheap binoculars. Pack a lunch and have a picnic with your family. Put on your dusty hiking boots and climb a 14er, and if you don't know what a 14er is, go up in the attic and find your old Encyclopedia Britannica and thumb through it until you find out what it is.