What Do We Gain? What Do We Lose?
A few weeks ago in class, during a discussion about the innovations that have already occurred in our lifetime, and what the coming years may hold — it was acknowledged that we have so much knowledge at our fingertips, and that accessibility will only grow as we move forward. Someone stated that having access to all the information known to man at the click of a button has negative connotations when it comes to human interactions. They were eluding to the point that social human interaction by way of discussion, debate and historical speculation were becoming diminished due to the fact that things we may have once discussed and speculated over, can now be known in a matter of seconds and a touch of a few buttons.
Another class member took an alternative view of the matter. They stated that immediate access to this knowledge has and will continue to enhance us to be more proficient, more creative, and most importantly, more innovative. Having unprecedented access to information that has already been discovered will enable people to be more knowledgeable moving forward, to build on lessons and discoveries from the past and present to design a more informed future.
What was interesting to me was that neither party was wrong. When thinking about the innovations we have already encountered, and the ones yet to be created that will inevitably shape our future environment, there will always be an element of gain and loss.
For example, the vast change in behavior created by the iPhone was a huge leap for technological and social innovation. All the information the Internet has to offer now sits in the palm of our hand, and we barely think once to “Google” anything. The gains purely from a knowledge accessibility point of view are huge, and have positively impacted the way we live in a number of ways. However, with gain comes loss.
We may have access to a wealth of information but do we use it wisely?
Are we becoming smarter or is everything being dumbed down for us?
How will we behave when our technological capabilities are much greater?
In our current environment we are surrounded with abundance — of products, services, knowledge, accessibility and opinions. We’ve passed the phase of being impressed by choice and instead are becoming increasingly overwhelmed with the excess. What began as a luxury, and soon became the norm, is fast becoming the source of much anxiety and mental fatigue. Having been through a heavy phase of over-consumption, with the products and services we use as well as the information and content we consume, perhaps it will soon be time for the reverse — I wonder if the future holds reverting back to a life of simplicity due to burnout from abundance, in every sense of the word.
Like the saying “With great power comes great responsibility” the same applies to us when it comes to technology, information and consumption. With such unprecedented access it’s down to us to be mindful of how it helps us, and how it may hinder us.
