The Real Cost Of Technology

Everyone is excited about technology.  Every day we use our cell phones, computers, the GPS systems in our cars, and all kinds of devices that are connected to the internet or to our work.  Each of these conveniences comes at a cost, which can be either an initial purchase price, a monthly lease or subscription fee, or some other charge that technology companies have devised to get some of our money.

But there are other costs, too.  How much time do you spend after your normal working hours answering phone calls, email, or texts from work? How much time do you spend looking at your calendar to see your schedule for the next day? How much time do you spend typing addresses into your GPS so your car will tell you when you get to your destination? How many minutes or hours do you spend each day going through your Facebook feed to see what your friends or co-workers are doing? How much time on Twitter?  Instagram?  Reddit? Pinterest? Others?

Time is perhaps our most undervalued resource. The time we spend typing at our keyboards or squinting at our phone screens could easily be spent enjoying our children, watching a basketball game from the bleachers, or just enjoying a beautiful sunset. There are a limited number of minutes that we have every day and during our lifetime and the way we choose to spend them is up to us.

Humans are gregarious. We're wired to feel pleasure from being around other people. The technology that we use every day draws us away from other people. Sure, we're able to interact with them instantly, but how can you see another person't facial expressions or hear the tone in their voice in a 140 character Twitter post or a text message that contains only a little yellow smiley face?. You can't. Technology makes them more accessible, but provides no access to the entire experience you get with a face-to-face interaction.

The place that I see this most often is in restaurants. A couple walks in, sits down at a table, and then both of them immediately pull out their phones. In the hour and a half that they're sitting across from each other, less than 10 words are exchanged and they never even look at each other. Their phones, however, take a pounding from all the text messages they send and receive, the Facebook posts they read, and all the Pokemon creatures they capture while sitting there. Besides the whole thing being incredibly rude, it's also a lost opportunity that they could have used to form a new human connection or strengthen an existing one.

To fix this, we need to recognize technology for what it is -- a convenience. Using it is not a requirement. Sure, we may be required by our employers to be accessible for certain things in order to earn our paychecks, but when we have a choice we should choose to be humans, not slaves to our technologies and devices. It's time to stop for a minute, take a deep breath, and decide how we really want to live our lives.

All that being said, I just spent 20 minutes writing this post that I could have spent petting the cat. I will pay dearly for this.