Every once in a while I do an exercise. I draw up on a piece of paper a sketch of my phone. For each of the apps I use, I write the purpose of the app and try to come up with an alternative way of achieving the same ends. Since I was young, I have always been fascinated by compartmentalization. What I find most interesting about modern smart phones is the way they have created second-tier levels of compartmentalization that have consolidated an multifaceted array of functions into a single device. Whereas one might used to have carried an camera, music player, video recorder, phone, calculator, etc. all bulky antiquated uni-taskers by contemporary standards. That all of these tasks can be accomplished by a single device is mind boggling but the emergence of applications has done far more for expanding the reach of a handheld cellular device than simplifying the number of gadgets we carry around with us.
When written out, I realize I am far more dependent on my iPhone now for its applications than I may have been a just a few years ago before I got a smartphone. Basic functions like calculator functions and a top-rate camera even internet access are now expected features in a cellphone though I can recall a time in middle school when teachers would tell us that skills like mental math and the memorization of state capitals was an important pedagogical exercise because calculators and encyclopedias would not always be available to us at a moment’s notice—and that was only a few years ago.
There is the recurring argument that the more reliant we become on technology the stupider we become in real life. To the extent that I can outsource my mental faculties and memorization capacity to Google, I have less need to store such banalities as state capitals in my mind, freeing up headspace for different subject matter.
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/09/is-google-making-students-stupid/380944/
The next level of app involved capitalizing on innate human insecurity through the technological plane. As a luddite, I long for the day that civilization returns the pen, paper, and the printing press and I am an aggressive advocate for face-to-face interaction and frequent conversation however, I do not agree with the idea that technology is unique in making us feel more alone. Rather, technology because of how close it has integrated with our everyday existence, is simply magnifying and advantageously marketing what capitalist markets have always historically targeted which moody philosophers would argue for and iterate over and over which is that we all have insecurity and we all have desire. Insofar as desire can be continuously generated and insecurity is encouraged and allowed to fester products can be sold. This has been the logic of advertising for decades, but the ubiquity of social media has created new extremes emphasizing Lacanian jouissance—essentially participating in the creation of our online lives as commercials of ourselves.
Every time I do this exercise I decide to delete all my “toxic” social media for between one and three days after which point I usually re-download the applications over the course of a few days.
Because between the absolutely rudimentary and the absurdly superfluous lie harmless applications like Lyft, and Google Maps, and WeatherPup without which I would functionally incapable of getting around cities, incapable of getting around campus, and unable to dress properly for the weather at which point I decide, well I have this magical device that I can’t get rid of and so I sign back into Facebook and scroll through my feed once again. Though this is obviously far from perfect system for maintaining technological sanity, I find that each time I go back to social media, I am able to refine my taste so that I only follow and invest my time in what is actually important to me on social media: tagging my friends in dog memes.
Relevant sources:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dogspotting/
2 Comments
It’s true that nowadays most of us are dependent on our technology, most of us are thinking that we can’t live without it. You did the right thing to step back for a while and have your mind fix on which apps are what you really needed. It shows that you have a strong will to decide for yourself that others didn’t have.
You made me laugh with the comment about middle school teachers. Thank you. I will have to ask my 10 year old what the teachers say today about memorizing the state capitals. During our Thanksgiving trip to see my mom, we played the game of seeing how many different state license plates we could see during the 6-hour trip. That turned into asking our son if he knew the capital of every state we encountered, since we knew he had been learning them in school. It was something to pass the time and help him memorize the capitals, but I’m not sure why we do it otherwise. Will his son or daughter be taught to memorize the state capitals? What will replace that lesson? What would you replace it with?
Overall, I believe in continuing to know how to do math (even if I use a calculator), spell (even if I am sometimes helped by autocorrect), and know how to navigate without technology (because I enjoy arguing with Google Maps about the best path). Still, I do wonder why we have to memorize the state capitals, now and when I was young.
I think you’re very wise to regularly consider what apps you use and why. I love getting a new device because it means that I load on it only the apps I need and consider healthy for my real life. I never let the system automatically repopulate my new device with my old digital life. But then again, every few years I throw out everything I haven’t used in those years. I know everyone isn’t like that.
Post a Comment