Consider Technology's Impacts Over Time, Not By Its Bright and Shiny Attractions

Art Quilt by Susie Monday

When You Were Born The Sun Flared

A Day In The Life of A Content Creator

You've probably been where I am. This very day, possibly.  The lure of multi-tasking has me reaching for tasks to do like pieces of chocolate candy to gobble. 

I open a document on the desktop, hear the buzzer on the dryer, jump up and unload and fold clothes, then return to my desk only to notice the unexpected letter announcing my car inspection is now due and I resolve not to be six weeks late, like last year, because it only shortened the time my car's sticker was valid, which was why the notice arrived earlier than I expected. 

What about that document that just opened up on the desktop? What editing idea flew in and left my brain in the turnaround time of a Southwest Airlines jet? 

And why, at this early hour in the day, do I feel exhausted, having only a stack of folded clothes to show for the past 20 minutes of work? How quickly multitasking (like eating candy) becomes an unsettled tummy, feelings of vague anxiety, and tiredness. 

Buzz Buzz Buzz

There goes the dryer buzzer again. I leap for laundry. Maybe your thing is the cellphone, the doorbell or the oven timer. The disruptions of our technology are easily overlooked. Tools like email, texting, remote meeting apps, project management software help us save time and be productive, but if our focus is sliced too thin, how do they impact us negatively?

Most of us know multi-tasking is as seductive as a mirage. Switching focus from one task to another task is both counter productive and draining. 

It's helpful to turn off notifications, leave my cell in another room and use the focus block method, originated by Charlie Gilkey, author of Start Finishing, How to go from Idea to Done. 

Time Is the Overlooked Factor

One reason that multi-tasking with tech tools is tempting, even if we know of the dangers, is that we don't yet know the way technology affects us.  The full impact any technology has on us is only known over time, according to Cal Newport, a Georgetown University, computer, science, professor, and author.  And we're not there yet.

Newport offers two metaphors about how long it can actually take to figure out the best way to use some technologies in a recent interview for New York Times magazine column, Talk, written by David Marchese (Jan. 2023).

When disruptive technology comes in it takes a long time to figure out the best way to use it. When the automobile was introduced. It took a while before we figured out traffic rules, and understood that it can’t just be cars going wild through the street. 

The next is a study from Stanford economist Paul A. David about the introduction of the electric motor into the factory setting. 

Which should’ve been evident in hindsight, was to put a small motor in every piece of equipment to better control the machine. Yet, in real life, that actually took 20 or 30 years... history tells us that it will probably take a generation to figure out what the best kind of collaborative cognitive work looks like when we have external computational aids connected by high-speed digital network. "It’s going to take a while.“

If you were midway driving to a destination or half finished packing a bag for a vacation, it would be helpful to study a map or review your packing list. 

To grow in our understanding of how a technology like TV, Tik Tok or gaming affects us pro and con, wouldn't it help for us to telescope-out to an expanded scale to recognize that, like cars and motors in factories, it may take years to know its full effect on people? 

Don't Thow Out the Video Game Console
With The Bath Water

Humans are capable of amazing creations. Think of life-saving technologies, medicines and social policies that improve health and educational attainment for more of us, but as the tech world rolls out new products daily, keep in mind the adage "only time will tell." 

We love our tech tools and toys. We can continue to use them, but let's not not be blind to their misuse.  Let's dare to ask the hard questions. The workplace is crawling with computational aids, yet how's that affecting our innovations, productivity and work relationships?  

How far along are we in knowing the impact of smart phone use on family relationships and on children's development? While we wait, let's do something about the girls' whose lives are in danger due to social media.

Over time, we have learned some innovations need to be rethought. Think of the atomic bomb and other weapons. 

Thomas, Midgley, Jr. 100 years ago invented both leaded gasoline, and the first commercial use of chlorofluorocarbons that would create a hole in the ozone layer. It took us 100 years to figure out how damaging these innovations were to become. 

Interruptions and disruptions will always parade before our attention. Protecting our focus may be a powerful way to protect our creativity and contributions to humanity.  In the push for market roll-out and adoption, let's keep in mind what early media theorist Marshall McLuhan observed: All technology contain "unobserved" and "unanticipated" cultural implications  that wash over us and change us without our even knowing." Except over time.

Stories R Us

 Screen-Time vs. In Real Life (IRL)

Does your tech use help or hurt your relationships?

In a technology-rich culture such as ours, relationships with family, co-workers and friends can suffer when we don’t take the time to know each other in real life (IRL) as deeply as we can.  We can easily find ourselves spending more time facing screens than spending face to face time with the people in our lives who we care about most. There's a reason for that.  The entire tech, entertainment and e-commerce industries depend on us staying online.

Time flies. Trust erodes. Screens steal. Whether movies, TV, smart phones, tablets or desktops, screens take our attention, make money for someone else and leave our neglected IRL relationships lacking joy, depth and trust.

Stories Produced For Commercial Consumption 

True, stories produced by professionals for mass audiences to make a profit are entertaining and amazing. They must be compelling in order to earn what they cost to make! There are teams of engineers who work to keep us engaged, captured and delivered to advertisers. 

Stories About Our Lives and Journeys Build Relationships 

Our own stories have an even greater value. They are part of how we know ourselves and let others in to know us, too. Storytelling is our heritage as humans. Long before we drew on cave walls or wrote with the first alphabet, we taught and learned by speaking and storytelling.

 Stories tell others who we are and what we have learned. They contain the past and the present. They are a gift to the listener and the storyteller, who remembers something important and shares it.

 Strengthen Your IRL Connections

There is a great hack for building our IRL relationships, and it is as old as humanity. It is storytelling. 

If you’re new to storytelling, here are a few guiding ideas.

1.    Start by listening. Ask family members or friends a question only they could answer, such as What was the best meal you’ve ever had? Who was your favorite teacher and why? Story themes can include thought provoking questions such as “Don’t believe everything you think”, or the tell about the time you used your wits to get out of real trouble.

2.    Listen to good stories at sites like The Moth. Notice what you like about a story,  how it starts, develops and ends. Is there a lesson learned or is a truth revealed?

3.    What kind of story do you like to listen to or tell?  What gives you a most pleasure or delight? There is no one formula to storytelling.  Just as there are many genres in literature, from comedy and romance to suspense and mystery, you get to decide what kinds of stories you prefer telling and how to tell them. 

     It Was A Dark And Stormy Night

I’ve enjoyed the best stories with family and friends in cars on long drives. The lights are dim, the road hums beneath us, we’re strapped in our seats and we are all ears. There are comfortable silences. One story prompts another person to tell their’s.  

Story Telling is Our Human Heritage

One of my most valued theorists and guides in my field of study, Communication studies pioneer, George Gerbner, connects our humanity to stories succinctly. 

“Indeed, story is the best word I can find to designate the key feature and most distinctive characteristic of human communication. More than any other, Homo Sapiens is the story-telling animal. Unlike any other, Homo Sapiens lives in a world erected, experiences, and conducted largely through many forms and modes of story-telling.”