The end of the world as we know it.

“Technological change is not additive; it is ecological. A new technology does not merely add something; it changes everything.”
― Neil Postman

New technology is born and crowds its ancestors out faster than any organic species on Earth. Devices change, interfaces change, and the code and materials that power them is perpetually changing. Tens of millions of people every day are tasked to conceive, create and deliver chemicals, molds, mathematics, packages and the machinery to reproduce more techno-creatures that command our attention.

Look beyond the mountains of e-waste we create with our fascination for next; lift your head from your own handheld device and observe the rapid cultural change that is transforming how we behave.

Sleeping is now the longest period of time you go without touching a piece of ABS plastic or Gorilla glass.

How many conversations have you had recently where you’re paying more attention to your device than the humans speaking to you? Is this a new era of manners, or the end of established ones?

How much time do you spend watching one device and working another?

We cry at Apple commercials of teenagers whose device is glued to their hands while their families beg their attention, or marvel to see an iPad travel where George Mallory could not.

Tech can let us do so many new things, but like Spiderman’s powers that let him see and interact with the world differently, it utterly transforms us. There is no going back. (Barring an explosion at Yosemite.)

The tools of our tools, or happy symbiants? Tech whispers sweet nothings to us…it pretends to make us smarter. But then again, why should we remember facts, methods or themes when we can look them up at any time? Is that knowledge? Wisdom? Or handicapping?

Is it all bad? Of course not…but it is different, and definitely never again to be the same.