It’s just a coincidence that I am writing this on my laptop, listening to my mp3’s in a corner of my room… Is this the good side of technology? The start of something creative? The start of a project that looks into the effects of technology on social interaction? Where it will bring people? What will we see as a result of this technological drive in the future? What are the ideals of the drivers behind innovation and technological development? Is it purely financial or are the social ramifications the main consideration?
Lots of questions… the purpose of this project is to investigate these questions and attempt to portray the results through the medium of photography, both reflecting our perspectives and the perspectives of those that we encounter during this investigation/adventure.
Everywhere we go today, every step we take is driven by technology. The clothes we wear, the transport we take, the buildings we live in; all developments in these fields are driven by technology, all in the effort to increase our comfort and living standards. The considerable increase in the standard of living in Ireland has saw the focus change from creating security through the basic means of food, a roof to sleep under and family and now has taken a further step in the hierarchy of needs depicted by Maslow. The financial windfall of our generation has developed a status built culture where technological gadgets have become the goal of achieving as certain status level. Examples are all around us and at every stage of life. The 14 year old wanting a playstation, the 18 year old must having an ipod, everybody having the best phone. All considered essential in the day-to-day life of a young adult.
This is where we are…. This is what we are doing… this is who we are going to become… At what sacrifice?
Over the next few weeks we will investigate the social ramifications of the technological boom, focusing at these comfort gadgets and the effect they are having on our present youthful generation.
We encourage everybody to join into the debate and drive this project to create the awareness it deserves…
Bring back conversation; bring back the word, the smile and the touch…
Lauren Hennessy and Keith Magee
Contact Us…
12 comments:
Living in mypod...
It's not just a coincidence that I am writing this on my laptop listening to my creative in the corner of the room. I purposely chose this desk for its secluded charm and I purposely listen to my music to block out the background noise so I can concentrate on 'work'. After a few moments of listening to my own little soundtrack and watching people in the office play out some scene like an old silent movie I begin to feel safe, my bubble begins to envelope me..and just like swaddling there's a feeling of being constricted to my own world. Removing my headphones or noises which are audible over my music instantly bursts my bubble and so the volume gets turned up. But this is hardly something for society to become worried about and I don't expect the anti-social police to come a knocking with pins at the ready but maybe this is indicative of the behaviour that we experience, witness and play a role in everyday. As a society have we ticked the optional box for human interaction? Would we rather Google directions than ask a stranger? As our technology gets connected to the limitless range of networks available are we becoming more and more disconnected as people? Have our communicative skills actually regressed if we are too emotionally detached from our environment to acknowledge someone smile at us or possibly make an attempt at conversation with another lonely commuting soul? And then there is another problem, because of course not everyone is a technologically savvy whiz kid with more igadgets than you can shake your virtual istick (or a wii if you must) at. An enormous riff has emerged between those who love technological advances and those who fear it. (Its your basic fear love timeline exercise:) )
But truth be told I'm not very worried to be honest because I know there is always going to one thing that will define us from technology and that means technology will never completely replace us. Technology is programmable and incapable of true randomness. And that in effect is where we should reclaim our lives and take advantage of the multiple possibilities and choices we are faced with everyday to have a real encounter with a real person.. Talk to the stranger sitting beside you, say thanks to the bus driver, smile at someone you make eye contact with, stop living through TV programs and realise that the most entertaining thing you can do is play a role in the soap opera that unfolds around you everyday. Technology in essence is striving to regularise all our interactions and although it is marketed as something you can customise to your own lifestyle maybe it has started to customise our lifestyles. Restore order, slow down, step back. Take your time and realise that being a few minutes too late in this life is better than being a few years too earlier for the next one and even if your not a Buddhist or believe in reincarnation believe in quality and believe that each day in your life should contain quality and stop wishing life away between holidays and breaks.
Technology is not all bad it has kept us in touch with so many more people that we would otherwise not still be in contact with if it wasn't for email and texts. Let it work for us and with us....
dont know a lot of stuff but im as well here writing.
technology or not
i think nothing essential changes
it changes the way we communicate
it changes the idea of time
now i push return and u have my words on your screen
now
so theres only few seconds delay
once upon a time
if i was writing to my granny
the letter take, for example in italy
3 weeks 2 come
...
but then
my granny
reading the letter
for sure in her mind she could hear my voice like i was talking next 2 her
even if i wrote the letter 20 day before
even if
in the while
someone decided 2 kill me with a flower
is it a trip
in the time and in the space?
and if im listening my mp3
am i living in the past?
can technology give me
answers?
th
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fr
lv
4 all
fr
br
si
lv
denny
This is my humble contribution to your project. It was supposed to be just one more Sunday at the cinema with the same group of friends, but it ended up being a constant subject stuck in my head as I started to make links between my thoughts and other events around me. One of them was this project and that's why I decided to share this piece.
Cheers!
Fernanda
Disturbing Silence
Following the same format as the great Mexican film director Alejandro González Inarritu two previous films, " Babel" tells stories about different characters that apparently are not connected but are linked by an unexpected event in their lives. One of the stories shows Chieko, a deaf-mute Japanese teenager who suffers the effects of her disability on a daily basis. Inarritu looks at an extremely busy Japan from the perspective of silence and makes you bombard yourself with questions. While every young person has an ipod as a must have gadget on their list of desires, what is on Chieko's? What is the point in having the state-of-the-art mobile phone if you can't talk to your friends without looking at them? Saturday night at a club or a gig? How does Chieko find alternatives to this world where sounds and communication play such an important role? Inarritu shows brilliantly how sad and frustrating can be not to be able to express yourself to the world when we are so dependant of technology when it comes to communication. Despite all the accessible high technology Chieko's best resource to make herself understood is a piece of paper and a pen. Sounds weird? It still works. I had loads more questions in my head, but the only certainty is that I haven't found any answers and for Chieko everything remains in deep disturbing silence.
I just came to say Hi Keith, best wishes for this site.
I Will keep in touch!
hey Lauren - dats a serously interesting piece u sent me - n totally relevant! since im workin in a primary skul i have LOTS to say on the effect "comfort" technology is having on young children, as young as 4. dunno if yr interested in that aspect but let me no xxx best of luck with the project
Hi lauren,
just replying to this now. sorry it took so long.
"Is this the good side of
technology, the start of something creative, the start of a project
that looks into the effects of technology on social interaction, where
it will bring people, what will we see as a result of this
technological drive in the future?"
I'll get back with more of my thoughts later.
i like alot!
Anyway chat later! & best of look.
Si
interesting blog ill try not to burst your bubble in work but surely you must take some comfort in knowing that there is alot of human interaction as oppose to the mindless zombies in other places.
in fact thats what alot of people like to do to pass the time since as you pointed out technology is not random and can easily be predicted like a bad movie, although routine can be a comfort in itself
couldn't help but laugh when I saw nokia's new ad for it's mp3 phone the other day. It involves a couple sitting on a bus listening to the phone with big silly smiles on their faces with the caption "music gets you talking" underneath. The ad brought me back to a bus trip I took to carlow last year to see Simon. It was a two hour trip and in my rush to get ready I had forgotten to bring something to entertain me for the trip. I looked around the bus for someone that might be interesting to talk to and it struck me that I'd get more conversation out of my dead pet goldfish. Everyone was in their 'bubble'. Headphones on, arms crossed or clutching a mobile phone, bodies turned away from everyone else. In the two hours the most interaction I had with the other passengers was when the guy behind me took off his shoes and put his feet on the back of my chair so that I got the occasional wiff of smelly socks!
Why oh why didn't anyone have that new nokia phone?!
...the technology make us to pay our attention (=to direct our life energy) to the outside, but our soul is inside us:)
I think technology is turning us into simpler beings, easily scared, paranoid. We're buying into silly ads, silly slogans. It makes us stupid, there are now hardly any places in daily life where you can talk to someone out of the blue without them thinking you're a weirdo.
People are happy when:
They get a pay cheque.
Things are cheap.
Things are safe.
Now tell them to exercise their right to vote, and you think you're asking them to read War and Peace 3 times in 26 seconds.... Big Sigh.... 'I couldnt be bothered cos it means I would have to research into this...'
Acquiring knowledge is tiring.
Acquiring knowledge should:
bring a pay cheque
make things cheap
make things safe.
Acquiring knowledge is now never about:
enriching oneself
conveying ideas in conversation
have clever kids
Sad really....
It feels funny to dis technology when writing my first ever 'blog' entry/ journal/ whatever it may be called
So perhaps I won't dis it. Sitting in class listening to Mr. bow tie sort through hypos on legal ethics, zoning out, surfing the web, stumbling upon thoughtful and thought provoking comments from people from who knows where... makes me think this inter-connectedness derived from fast-paced technological advances.... isn't so bad.
And isn't it funny that the forum to critique the social effect of technological advances, which very well might include the creation of awkward face to face interactors, is one driven by technology? Perhaps all the social ills we purport to have been created by technology aren't actually created by technology. Kids who are concerned will continue to be so, and will use technology to push for the social change we've been limited to addressing at a local level until recently. And adults who take themselves too seriously will continue to do so by isolating themselves in their own little blackberry worlds.
So perhaps I don't think technology necessarily changes us... we use it. It magnifies our existing tendencies toward collaboration or isolation. And I've downloaded a lot of really good music lately...
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