Technology Changing our World

I've never been much of a technology person. I got a cell-phone in 9th grade without asking for one, often misplaced it, forgot it, lost it, and never answered it. 3 years later, I still don't know how to check my messages.

Cell phones are certainly convenient, but they also feel like a burden to me. Why should someone expect me to communicate with them at any place, at any time? I like feeling cut off from others once in awhile, able to live fully in the moment. With each innovation in communication technology, we become more closely connected to other people and places. At the same time, we become more disconnected from our immediate surroundings.

I feel that our world is starting to exist more in digital technology, and less in our physical surroundings. We learn about others lives from facebook statuses. We hear of major news events from twitter. We text friends even when people are talking right next to us. *

This all ties into the concept of multitasking, which was discussed and criticized in the documentary Digital Nation. With so many options for communicating with others and for finding new information/entertainment, we are faced with an overload of decisions to make. And often, when we can not decide what one thing to do, we try to do everything at once! When I'm on the internet, I'll often have up to ten tabs open. There is such an expansive world existing within the internet that I am tempted to take in all of it, without the work and patience needed to understand any of it. I constantly switch between tabs, forgetting what I was thinking about seconds ago.

People "switch tabs" constantly in everyday life. Text friends, do homework, talk to classmates, do other homework, surf the internet. This can all take place in minutes. We are overwhelmed by distractions, and struggle to commit to any task at hand.

Digital technology has a profound impact on our everyday life. We can learn anything, and talk to anyone, at any time. While this has great benefits, I feel that we often don't know how to handle the magnitude of it all. We linger between different ideas and different virtual worlds, unable to focus on any of them, ignoring the physical world we exist in.

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*This is a huge pet peeve of mine. I wanted to punch all students in the documentary who spent their dinner with friends texting other people! I'm not a very social person, and it's frustrating to try and talk to someone when they are focused on something else. Some of my closest friends will spend the time we hang out on iPhones, even when we haven't seen each other in weeks!

Parmenides

Parmenides would argue that there are certain universal and unchanging truths within our own existence and the world around us. We are born, we die, and the process repeats itself. Throughout our lives, we share the same needs, emotions and thought processes. We can relate to any unknown person, knowing that they too have experienced excitement, fear, hunger, thirst, exhaustion and joy.

He would have also asserted that change is not present in the physical world (outside of our own existence) either. Although Parmenides would've have rejected a linear world view, I do not believe he would have completely agreed with a cyclical view either. He argued that the world is static, therefore it can not expand and contrast, it must be fixed into one concrete position. Newton's laws support this argument. They have remained the same since the world's formation, and guide the actions of every object that exists or has existed.

Debate on Change

What I love most about rivers is
you can't step in the same river twice.
The water's always changing,
always flowing.

Today we discussed Heraclitus and Parmenides in our first debate. It was hectic! The format was structured and fast-paced, and it seemed that most of us weren't completely comfortable with it. My heart was pounding the entire time, even though I only spent a total of thirty seconds talking in front of the class. Despite the fact that the debate felt confusing and unorganized, I thought it was a great experience. I've never had to think on my feet in front of a group of people in such an environment before. Near the end, I wanted the opportunity to get up and try again.

As for the content of the debate itself, I was on team Heraclitus. Like the titular character of one of my favorite historically innacurate animated films, I find that Heraclitus's views coincide more with my own. How can a person remain the same having experienced something new and different? Each interaction I make affects who I am. I can never revert to a previous moment of being. Parmenides might rebut that although I may accumulate new thoughts and experiences, I still won't wake up a butterfly tomorrow. To me, this doesn't negate the fact that I've been changed as an individual.

Change is an intriguing and confusing topic within our culture. I think of the 2008 presidential election, when the word symbolized freedom, and improvement for many people. The concept of moving rapidly forward to something new and better was exciting. But others firmly believe that any more change in our government would lead to further decay, and that we must attempt to revert back to it's original state. We see the same idea of progression vs. regression repeated in other aspects of our society and lives. We want to move forward in our lives and community, without drifting too far from what makes us who we are.