Is Technology Cheating us of Reality?

[Nik Xues]

Spirit, Mind and Body these are the strengths we use to meet the world head on. But now i fear technology has unbalanced these strengths.

No perhaps it has almost robbed us of them or more percisly the means to build upon them. Uncertain of the answers i have called upon you to help me with this question. and even a solution.

Please answer these questions:

IS technology a threat to our individual strengths as a person?? why or why not.

How do we correct this issue without discarding technology completely??

for this Thread i'll leave some definitions to operate by.

Body = physical capabilities.

Mind = problem solving skills and not knowledge or intellect

Spirit = Resolve or the ability to stick and follow through with your decisions.

[Nighthawk9653]

I think that if technology is used meaningfully, like looking up things, or learning new things, then it can be a very good tool for anybody, because you have every piece of information you could ever want.

But I also don't think technology is the greatest for learning either, because back before technology, if you wanted to learn something, you went and read books or asked someone, or talked to people.

in a way I think it makes us less social. We don't even need to leave the house anymore to buy everyday supermarket things like groceries and things.

Also, it's filled with so much superficial stuff, like gossip and whatnot. Plus spending money on things you don't need.

All in all though, I think it can be a useful tool if used right, but it's so easy to become distracted by everything's else, which just makes it a time wasting object.

I don't think there is a way you could fix it. Unless you made a device that is strictly used for knowledge based, but even then theres so many ways technology could be used, so unless you got rid of it completely, you wouldn't solve much.

[Likely Guy]

Speaking as a technological missing-link. In my community we live over an hour from a grocery store, doctor, bank, police... wait.

It's easier to say that we have a general store (with fuel and liquor), hotel and bar (no food), Post Office (with a laundromat and restaurant that's only open weekdays until 5). We have a community hall, seasonal museum and an elementary school with about nine kids that's about to shut down.

That said, there's no fire protection, no cell service, no cable-vision, no access to natural gas heat (it's either fuel-oil, propane or firewood), no high speed internet.

As a community we are largely interdependant while maintaining our independance. Your question regarding spirit/mind/body applies directly to communities like mine.

If we didn't have the physical capabilities, the problem solving skills or the ability to stick and follow through with our decisions to live here, I could safely say that my hamlet of 350 souls wouldn't exist, but we do.

[LostSouls7]

I must say that Facebook is not that great.

Technology is some ways brings us close together yet farther apart.

But I feel that as far as poets and writers like myself.

It does let out work reach more people.

I also discover art and writings I enjoy online as well as music.

But as far as people posting they just had a sandwich for lunch

or some worthless drama on facebook yes its a waste of time and energy....

forums however I have always enjoyed.

I also found a lot of great books on vampyres and occult stuff online that I read,

so in that aspect it's a great place.

[Frank Merton]

I like technology when it provides me nice crisp bug-free apples; I don't when they are mushy from sitting in a "controlled atmosphere" several months.

[+Paranoid Android]

Walk out your front door. If you feel anxious or inadequate because you don't have your mobile phone with you, you are a victim of the "cyborg" phenomena. I freely admit I'm part of this phenomena, it's very stressful for me when I cannot access my phone due to external matters (usually I simply forgot to bring it).

I'm not sure I'd go as far as to say my humanity is "denied", but my life has definitely been infiltrated by technology, and it is tough to work without it (since I moved homes over 3 months ago, the only reason I can even access UM is because I have a phone that can access internet - without it I'd have been dormant, waiting for a new connection).

Edited November 21, 2013 by Paranoid Android

[J. K.]

Technology is just a tool. It has no life of its own, no hidden motive. It is true that technology has introduced us to things that we might not have encountered before. However, a technology user is going to use it based on who they already are. I would say our individual strengths are not threatened by technology.

On the other hand, I don't know if we're aware of how much technology is changing our lives. Many people no longer have land-line phones. Newspapers are shrinking. We've become a microwave society; everything's gotta happen now, now, now.

[scowl]

Body = physical capabilities.

I have run seven marathons in four years thanks to running groups I've met through the Internet. I haven't been in this good shape in thirty years and I've met lots of active people!

Mind = problem solving skills and not knowledge or intellect

I'll exclude myself from this question. I'm a programmer so this is what I do for a living.

Spirit = Resolve or the ability to stick and follow through with your decisions.

Those running groups I mentioned? There are a few running applications you can put on your phone that track how much you've been running and through Facebook show how much everyone else has been running. Thus you receive electronic peer pressure to get off your ass when your mileage slips past other members.

So I think technology can improve all three but only if you want technology to help you.

However we are free to blame technology whenever we're getting fat or stupid.

[Farmer77]

Spirit, Mind and Body these are the strengths we use to meet the world head on. But now i fear technology has unbalanced these strengths.

No perhaps it has almost robbed us of them or more percisly the means to build upon them. Uncertain of the answers i have called upon you to help me with this question. and even a solution.

Please answer these questions:

IS technology a threat to our individual strengths as a person?? why or why not.

How do we correct this issue without discarding technology completely??

for this Thread i'll leave some definitions to operate by.

Body = physical capabilities.

Mind = problem solving skills and not knowledge or intellect

Spirit = Resolve or the ability to stick and follow through with your decisions.

I have actually been discussing a topic close to this alot recently. I think it is the manipulation of technology which is the problem.

My family and i haven't had television (cable, broadcast OR satellite) since 2009. We do watch television shows and movies via various sites on the internet but we have been spared the constant bombardment of advertising and news ( 6 of one right) for almost four years and it has been very interesting to see our world views evolve. Not just for my wife and myself but for my children as well. While some would think that this would narrow our connection with the world it has greatly improved it. Without being force fed the story of the day in the US media we regularly explore international media outlets, without being told what is cool to own we are free to explore our own interests that come from our own desires and not those of some technological wizard in a studio.

Technology is a good thing, it's human nature which is cheating us of reality.

Edited November 21, 2013 by Farmer77

[Nenaraz]

Spirit, Mind and Body these are the strengths we use to meet the world head on. But now i fear technology has unbalanced these strengths.

No perhaps it has almost robbed us of them or more percisly the means to build upon them. Uncertain of the answers i have called upon you to help me with this question. and even a solution.

Please answer these questions:

IS technology a threat to our individual strengths as a person?? why or why not.

How do we correct this issue without discarding technology completely??

for this Thread i'll leave some definitions to operate by.

Body = physical capabilities.

Mind = problem solving skills and not knowledge or intellect

Spirit = Resolve or the ability to stick and follow through with your decisions.

As for tech, it can be an obstacle, but if it is we can't really know it. While the transhumanist ideas would work perfectly in medical sphera the development of weapons is the evidence of how bad it actually can get. So, it's never just black or white. Tech is nothing more than human capacity to bent the nature to the human will. Now, that's a scary aspect right there, almost seems like an anomaly of nature.

Mind and Spirit? I don't see the difference between the two. But everything does have the balance, it's always 180 degree. That's the principle of life and death. Whatever is at hand it will have double-edge and as much as something is strong at one point it will inevitably be its downfall.

As human beings? Well, there're many people on the globe but rarely do I see a human.

[Mr Walker]

Two measurable indicators. Human memory is diminishing as we use google. Because we do not have to remember things, we chose not to; and in chosing not to we lessen our capacity to memorise and remember.

Second written language and reading skils are diminishing. This is in part the nature of writing using technology, but more signficantly, the sheer amount of time people spend today using technology which was once spent reading. This decline is more marked in young females and women who once read a lot more than they do today, than in young males who statistically never did read as much as girls.

Certainly obesity and the illnesses surrounding, it are growing as a direct consequence of the sedentary life imposed by spending many hours using technology. There is evidence that both individual and community interpesonal skills and contacts are decreasing replaced by online contacts which are inherently more limited. It even contributes to the decline in neighbourhood and comunity where a peron maynot know the name of their neighbour depsite having a thousand "friends' online.

The most recent thing I have noticed is the extent and availiblity of porn online and via sites like pirate bay These are not just accesible to the yongest human beings, but it is the young who are most conected to them. The greatest traffic on these peer sharing sites is pornography without any government censorship. This has an effect on any viewer's attiude to sex, sexuality, and the treatment/ role of women that is not good /productive, and does not represent the relationships between ordinary men and women in the real world.

Ps I never thought much about mobile phones becauseIi must be the last person in the western world never to have owned one. I dont even answer our home phone but let the answering macine filter out the dozens of unwanted calls we get each day. However mobile phones in children/teenagers facilitate/increase anti social behaviour, bullying and sexual pressure which already existed, and make it harder for children to escape it.

I don't use face book despite originally setting up a site. I dont have too much sympathy for people harrassed through face book or twitter because if they turned the damned things off, they would ever know what people were saying about them. Me, I couldnt care less what someone says unless it is true; then I would do something to resolve it and make it untrue..

Edited November 21, 2013 by Mr Walker