Opinions about Modern Technology

Time for an interesting topic.

All of us obviously love Computers and the Internet. It's how we're chatting right now...
And of course, there's an equal amount of good and evil that can be done with them as we know.

But do you think Personal computers and the World Wide Web have made life better, easier, faster, more convenient ? Do you think they've taken too much of our attention in our personal lives - or at work are they more of a pain when they don't function right ? 
We've come to a point where PCs and Internet are an accepted norm in society - we don't think twice about them... but it was only a short 25 years ago when we functioned quite fine without them.

Compared to yester-year, we have more info at hand, and more can be accomplished now... but are we really advancing ? Are we really "better off" than before ? 

Think hard about this before you answer with basic, simple answers or emotion (many of us are emotionally attached to our pc and internet). Give us your opinions both good and bad, for and against.

For me the answer is simple:  It's balance. 

One side:  My computer and the internet make it very quick and easy to find out something I need to know.  It makes it quick and easy to send a friend a letter.  As far as working on music I can do what I need to do in one room on one machine.  That includes getting the music out there in digital and physical form.

Other side:  My computer and the internet make it very easy to waste time doing and/or accomplishing nothing.  Just like the commercial asked:  Do people use their smart phones to do dumb things?

I don't like computers, because they break....just like cars!  But seriously I love using computers and the internet I think it is a fantastic tool and obviously a fun/convenient way to communicate with others.

Do I think they have taken too much attention away from "more important things"?  No, not really.  Let me explain...people (at least in the Western world) are going to waste time being idle.  They will do it on computers, or television, or movies, or books or even just staring into the fire...(seriously, I read something from an author in the 18th or 19th century complaining about being idle by just staring into the fire each night...as if it was a common problem among adults of the time).  People of means, will always find a way to waste time.

I agree more can be accomplished now that even just a few years back.  But I do not think it has made work easier for much of anyone.  The minute something becomes easier for an employee that is when the boss/customer demands even more from that employee.  If a worker can get 3-times as much done as the same worker 5 years ago, then you can bet that 3-times more will be demanded....that's the way a competitive free market works.  So no, I don't believe computers have actually made anybody's job technically easier.

I'll give you the standard engineering answer . . . . it depends

I am a software engineer, and I also serve as an adjunct instructor for an online university, so I depend on computers and the Internet for my meat and potatoes, as well as the bread and butter! That being said, I preferred the 90's, before the WWW blew up and most people thought "online" was the same as "in line."  Although the early Net was slow, I sometimes miss BBS, archie and veronica (no ... not the comic book characters), CompuServe, and Prodigy.

Good thoughts peeps.

I agree with ya'all. I think the most profound statement is this:

Quote :

The minute something becomes easier for an employee that is when the boss/customer demands even more from that employee. If a worker can get 3-times as much done as the same worker 5 years ago, then you can bet that 3-times more will be demanded....that's the way a competitive free market works. So no, I don't believe computers have actually made anybody's job technically easier.

Profound cuz it's SO true.

But overall, I personally have a love/hate relationship with my computers and the internet. Having "just enough" computer knowledge (building, troubleshooting and software design) to be dangerous, anywhere I work I become the designated PC fixer. And while this can be ego-boosting some times, other times it can be SO frustrating (you computer Nerd Herds KNOW what I'm talking about)...

If I tallied up all the time I've wasted trying to fix PCs, hardware and software issues, I've probably LOST about 2 years of my life collectively   (OK I didn't "lose", rather I "invested" my time in learning)
Our Dr's office is 100% EMR (Electronic Medical Records) - this is fantastic and saves thousands of trees every years.... until Time Warner goes down and we literally have to turn patients away cuz our entire system requires the internet to see patients. When I worked in retail pharmacy, we would have to tell customers that their medicine won't be ready in 15 minutes as we told them cuz the internet connection went down and may take several hours.
So while it's a great asset in the medical field... it sucks to tell someone they can't have their medicine or be seen for their appointment cuz our computers are down. I agree with them that it's stupid (and especially with the old fogies, I just agree with them that "days were better before these confounded machines" - LOL!)

And finally, I have a tremendous amount of respect for ya'all who do PCs for a living - your patience must be amazing !

I think it goes both ways. Can I google something and get info when I need it? Yes. In fact, I can google when "google it" became a saying.

But, even though I'm on Facebook, I think some social media makes us actually less social.

And as far as work... I was out sick 3 days last week and came back to 207 emails. Talk about wasting my time.

BearDad wrote:

Although the early Net was slow, I sometimes miss BBS, archie and veronica (no ... not the comic book characters), CompuServe, and Prodigy.

Ah yes, archie and veronica . . . those are names I haven't heard in quite some time.  Along with Mosaic

No love for Betty eh?

Betty was too sweaty

I could live without modern tech, and I think it would be better overall if I did. The trouble is that nowadays, it's usually easier to send someone a message than to call on the phone. Also, the Internet has caused more troubles than it's solved, IMO. It's hard to trust anyone, and it's easy to become offensive.

I know this is a little beside the topic, but I hate excessive technology in cars (everything from automatic climate control to automatic transmissions to traction control). It's a load of stuff I can do without.

Again, a "love/hate" relationship. I agree with you Driven. Too much stuff !! But it's oh so nice to have...

Several years ago I used to do "Tech-Fasts" where I would live day to day without using any modern tech that I didn't HAVE to use. Not as easy as it sounds. And you also realize how addicted or dependant on this stuff we really are.

The one area of tech that I really am thankful for is ease of recording music.  I can record an idea, save and play it back and even send it out for an opinion with ease.

It make collaborations easier, too!

I do a lot of image editing.
That said, one time I had worked on a photo from the early 70s that was really damaged (early pic of my wife as a child with all her siblings and their dogs)... after about 4 hours of editing and fixing it, the laptop I was working on crashed (irepairably)! I had a flash drive that I would back up all my work on as I finished portions of a picture.... except this time. Guess I was a little too cocky and thought nothing's gonna happen - THAT was stupid. To this day, I still haven't got around to starting over on that photo.
Someday maybe.

I love losing hours of work!  </sarcasm>

Guilty/Forgiven wrote:

it sucks to tell someone they can't have their medicine or be seen for their appointment cuz our computers are down.

That's just poor software design. For that type of application there should be a local database that can be synced periodically.

Guilty/Forgiven wrote:

Guess I was a little too cocky and thought nothing's gonna happen - THAT was stupid.

That happened to me recently - lost over 3 months of email and work changes. I had kept meaning to image my drive and kept putting it off (even though I imaged my wife and son's laptops) because I figured if it did crash I could just recover whatever I needed. Except the drive did one of those rare click of death type crashes that was common a long time ago where the heads can never find the start sector. Even the freezer trick didn't work.

My worst was just bad luck. Spent 50 hours STRAIGHT working on my program in the computer lab only to have my floppy crash on my final save. Even the more experienced geek staff in the lab couldn't get anything off of it. Luckiliy, the prof gave me a little extension as I did have a printout from a few hours prior that I was able to recreate from and move forward with what I had tweaked. Ironically enough, the challenge of that project (including having to relearn how to program first) was what sparked my interest in software development. I actually enjoyed those 2 days in the lab.

I'm thinking the real zombie apocalypse is going to occur when a sun storm or EMP takes out the electronics and everyone will be left stumbling around, staring at their hand in dismay.

It's a balance, you control how much internet is ruling your life.

topshot rhit wrote:

I'm thinking the real zombie apocalypse is going to occur when a sun storm or EMP takes out the electronics and everyone will be left stumbling around, staring at their hand in dismay.

Agreed!

Xid wrote:

topshot rhit wrote:

I'm thinking the real zombie apocalypse is going to occur when a sun storm or EMP takes out the electronics and everyone will be left stumbling around, staring at their hand in dismay.

Agreed!

Oh man that is funny!

Definitely made me