Technology

If there’s one thing great about this digital age, it’s that it enables pretty much everybody to create content as well as grant everybody access to it. It has significantly changed the way we consume media. These days we’re linking YouTube videos or torrent links to each other – back then, we had to tell our friends to catch something on TV or record it on video tapes to share.

Back then we had photo albums we had to meet up in person to share. Sometimes we even developed multiple copies of the same roll of film so we could keep them! These days it’s just a click or two to upload your photographs to Facebook or Flickr and another button to share.

Other examples include – waiting for the radio to play your favorite song vs. on-demand streaming services, buying CDs vs. downloading MP3s, snail mail vs. email and more.

While all that is great, there’s another side of the internet which greatly benefits certain people – content creators. Artists, actors, singers – everyone with something to share. It’s never been easier than now.

Have a story to tell? No problem, put it on a blog or publish an e-book. Have a film to show? Upload it to Vimeo and watch the hits roll in. How about a song? There’s Soundcloud, Bandcamp and a million other sites to choose from. Heck, you can even put your stuff up on iTunes or Spotify if you wanted. Want to make your own video game for people to play? You have the tools in your hands. If you’re unsure how, there are plenty of tutorials online! I learnt how to tie a tie through YouTube.

We’ve never been so connected before – it’s a good time to be alive. For those of you with an idea brewing in your head, I think there’s no better time to put it out. Before artificial intelligence gets too advanced and enslaves us all.

Are we too reliant on technology? It’s hard to say. After all, it has made life a lot better and far more interesting for me. Sure, it’s something that I could live without but it wouldn’t be a choice I’d willingly make. Like a lot of people, I’ve come to rely on it a great deal. A bit too much, I might add. Like yesterday, I made a stupid typo in my writing where I used the wrong word in a sentence. However, it was picked up by WordPress’ ‘proofread’ feature. Saved my ass.

Instead of memorizing directions to some place, I could just a navigation app to guide me there. Instead of digging through an encyclopedia for information, I can just Google it. Instead of spending money talking to people on the other side of the world, I can just drop them a message or email. Or tag them on Facebook. For free. It’s great!

But not all of it has been positive. I no longer take the trouble to memorize phone numbers. I mistype words on my phone because I know autocorrect will suggest the right one. I no longer remember to do things, I just set myself reminders on my phone. And the list goes on. Note – I don’t blame technology for these things, they just became byproducts of my reliance on it.

Does this make me worse as a person? Probably. If my computer and smartphone were to all suddenly fail for no reason, I’d be pretty screwed. And I wouldn’t be able to ask my friends and family if their devices were broken too because I haven’t memorized their home phone numbers (who even has a wall phone plugged in these days?).

Don’t know what I’m getting at, but I was just inspired to write this for today’s post after reading this interesting article.