Is Technology a Pandora’s Box?

Pondering the “epidemic” or When your mom spends more time texting than talking to you.

There's always been this concern that we're losing our way as a society. That some technological advancement or revolutionary idea or shift in culture has pushed us off the path of what is good and righteous and taken from us the halcyon, sacred image of the American family. What if we could only bring back those simpler times, when the world was painted in Technicolor and you didn't have to worry about which remote was for the DVD player and which one turned on the stereo.

Wasn't this country founded on the picket fence, the barbeque, the spam and eggs served in diners which all had the best pie, the best donuts, the best hamburger? It was a better time, they say, when children played outside and school fights involved fists and black eyes and not computer screens and keyboards. It was a time when you had the freedom to get truly lost while you were driving and the only way you could find good restaurant was through word of mouth. Hasn't something crucial been taken from our all-American sons and daughters, who will never grow up knowing what it means to have to mail letters, to pick up phones, and to shake someone's hand to get anything done?

The internet is what killed America. All the technology spread across our lives, depriving us of those once simpler and friendly times when a man knew his neighbor and depended on his own guts and grit to work his way up in the world. No more is the uncertainty of the weather, of public transit schedules, of the relationship status of our friends or their vacation plans. What joy is there in knowing too much? In being given too much without effort on our part? Do our children even learn the Dewey decimal system in school? Have they ever felt the weight of a dictionary or encyclopedia? Truly a tragedy is happening before our eyes, but those eyes are unaware, firmly glued to the screens of our smartphones.

So let's take away those damned devices. Let man wonder about his peers. Let him ask questions to gain knowledge. Give him the effort of seeking answers so when he finds them he values them more. Let him wonder and think for himself instead of simply ingesting the facts and research of others. Isn't that the rally of the technologically saturated? The cry of help from those of us drowning in the flood of notifications and reminders and requests?

Take away a man's iPad and give him a newspaper. Take away a child's Gameboy and give him building blocks. Ask forgiveness of the people we've judged, having only known them through our phone or computer screens.

But when did these crimes of society begin? Was it the dawn of the World Wide Web? Was it the birth of the desktop computer? Was it the first computing device that open this Pandora's box? Shall we string up the man who first wondered, what could be done to make computation easier? Shall we burn the house of the man who first thought that communication could be simpler and faster through two connected computers? What about the individuals who created the cables feeding internet into our homes? Do we persecute the men who laid those wires too? These are the men who are indirectly responsible for the porn sites and the spam in our inboxes.

And so you say, no, of course not. Man is the problem. Our nature is what destroys us. We have only our own selfishness to blame for whatever harm comes to us. But don't we have laws to keep us orderly? Laws to keep us from killing and deceiving and doing wrong to others. If we cannot blame an individual, then surely we can try to save man from his own nature by instituting regulations and restrictions. Thou shall only "Like" three pictures on Facebook per day. Thou shall have every question approved by Google before receiving results in the mail in one week's time. Thou shall not troll.

Man is then an animal which needs to be controlled. We have no power to resist the simplicity and effortlessness and convenience afforded to us by the inventions and discoveries around us. If this is the case then set us back another decade. Take away these things since we cannot handle them without abusing the power. Set us back another decade and make us work harder, fail more, and invest time in our endeavors. Let man not walk on the moon. Let him travel by wagon and not by car. Let him harvest his own food and protect the land it grows on. And let him remember the stone age and the struggle for survival and the fear of lightening and death and ignorance. If we are doomed to destroy ourselves with the knowledge we've built, then let us instead live as animals.