Technology Withdrawal... Feeling Lost Without Your Tech
from the what-do-I-do-now? dept
Earlier today, people took us way too seriously when we jokingly asked whether or not technology makes us smarter. We were more making fun of that question showing up every few months when reporters don't have anything else to write about, but people seem to love to debate the question. A much more interesting discussion, however, may be what happens when you lose some technology you've come to rely on. A few years ago, we discussed this in the extreme case of Steven Mann who is trying to live his life as a "cyborg," but was forced to remove his computer equipment to board a plane. The loss of such technology made it difficult for him to function. He claimed he had trouble walking and even fell down a few times. Obviously, that's an extreme example, but you can certainly see how it could apply to more everyday examples. For example, in this blog post, someone from the Institute for the Future notes that his car's GPS navigation system was stolen recently -- and even though he knows his way around the city, he proceeded to feel disoriented and get lost, since he was so used to having the navigation system to rely on. It seems likely that these kinds of "technology withdrawal" situations are going to become more common.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
The Values of Youth
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Paradoxically
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Not new - EYEGLASSES!
And then there's calculators and math ...
The invention of writing affected people's memory skills (not memory _per se_, but skills).
This is all a very old phenomena.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
not just youth
[ link to this | view in chronology ]