Technology, a secret heathen or a blissful heaven?
J.R. Hartley
Something hardly debated is whether or not sheer amount of tech around is a good thing for us as a country, now there is an overwhelming amount of evidence for yes but that simply just means that the topic is never talked about, its just the Status-Quo that tech is a good thing
My first point is the decline of proper industry, by this i mean primary industry. Men in flat caps going down the mines and pulling coal from the depths of the earth with there bare hands that sort of thing. With the arrival of the internet and tech importing goods became such an easier thing you could ring up a bloke in Russia and instantly two tonnes of coal would be on a ship to you, providing you had the cash. in days of old though you would have to go and see your local friendly coal mine and sort that out.
That raises another question, Local industry and all that lark, not too long ago lets say 40 years ago, if i wanted some clothes (this was before that awful synthetic stuff) i would have to go and see my local tailor, who would have been making clothes for me since i was a very small boy, he would make everything in your town by hand probably using material made in a mill very close to you, with wool from sheep not at all very far away from you. They were skilled people there fathers would have been tailors going back to time in memoriam. is it not a shame today that i can log on to where ever and have some cheap knocked together tripe from across the world for a tiny percentage of what a nice suit would have cost?
Now you are probably thinking well, its cheaper for me so that is a good thing, but consider this, if i can get a T-shirt for a few quid and it rips i would probably throw it away but if i bought a proper shirt with french cuffs and all that, i would for one be very cautious as not to stain it or rip it! and 2 i would have it repaired rather than being wasteful and chucking it away! we are a throw away society because of cheap imports
Now i have seen a very slight reversal of this in recent years with the coming of very expensive smart phones and laptops, people have them repaired if there is an issue, purely because it is so expensive to replace when a part is much cheaper, this used to be the case with everything years ago, you had to make do, you could not just replace a TV or a pair of shoes on a whim, you saved or rented then go it.
Now i went off on a tangent there so i shall return to my point, A disadvantage of tech is a decline of the postman and the milkman, think about it, the milkman was brought about with the railways because milk could go from cow to bottle very quick, but because shops and people did not have fridges so the milk was delivered daily, in recyclable glass bottles! The postman these days is dying a death too, i can simply contact what ever outstandingly beautiful woman i so please with the press of a few buttons, i do not have to construct a letter, put a stamp on it and post it thereby giving the postman a job.
That brings me to another point, Concorde. Concorde flew for the first time in the late 1960's and that was at a time when you had to book to make a telephone call to america, no email, post was far too slow by ship, I could be in New York in three hours. suddenly businessmen could commute daily to London from New York, absolutely mad. Then came email, video conferencing and the Fax. and Concorde was axed in 2003. Now those of you with a brain will argue but AHHHHH Concorde and flying is a huge waste of fuel and terrible for the environment, and in my defense i would say but it was a British achievement, a wonder of the sky's and consider this, when Concorde was axed it was the only time we went back technologically, nothing replaced that supersonic beauty, once where i could fly to New York in under three hours it now takes 9, also a neat little fact not many of you readers would have considered, New York is 5 hours behind Britain, if i left Heathrow, London at 12 noon GMT i would arrive at JFK in New York at 10 EST (New York time) thereby effectively having gained two hours, how great is that? and best of all it was British!
My next pick at the tech we have to day is that i wholeheartedly believe that we as a society are losing our ability to communicate with each other effectively i would not say i am part of this problem as i consider myself well read and quite social but i know many many people who are slightly recluse and i would blame tech for this, obviously i cannot know every intimate detail of their lives but i can tell when someone is ignorant or unable to communicate effectively and efficiently now here i am not just talking about the kid who's is a bit of a geek always on the latest video game or the gossipy girl super glued to her mobile telephone, it effects most of us, and i would say that is a bigger issue than most of what goes on in government.
Have you ever really thought about it, take yourself for instance, What do you do as soon as you wake up? do you check your phone? through the day do you read more Facebook posts than articles in a newspaper? can you remember the last time you had an in-depth conversation, and i do not mean the soppy one about feelings or just talking all night, i mean something important for example about the United Kingdoms down-rated credit rating, and that excludes a spitty comment on twitter, i mean a proper conversation! should we be enslaved to our mobile phones 24/7? now i have one, but i use it when i want to, for the odd bit of music here and there, to get in contact with someone when i'm out ( i would do what people did in the 60's and carry a note book with numbers in and use a phone box, if it were not 60 fucking pence to make a telephone call) i am sheerly convicted that some people have a psychological addiction to social networking sites and mobile phones, and people who profess 'I couldn't go a day without my mobile phone' are proof of this, i know they wouldn't die, but they would surely be bored and get anxious and uneasy without it, i am dead certain of it.
My next point is conversation, the lost art, how many times have you been stuck with someone and had nothing to say? but in some cases if you were Texting you could talk all night? I would not use the excuse of i am nervous around them, but that people do not know how to make conversation anymore!! think about it 40 years ago your only means of contacting that beautiful girl in the lower sixth was to pass her a note, too risky, possibly embarrassing telephone call was out of the question, her dad might pick up and give you a right bollocking for it! you had to get up the nerve to talk to her, or write her a proper full length letter, i once knew a girl very well and we wrote many many letter to each other when we could have easily just Texted but you get to know so much more about a persons character and demeanor through the art of letter writing, i seriously know of no-one else who would write a letter to communicate well other than bills and whatever but socially NO. now i could spur off and rant on about that but i have had enough.
Now most people would argue that tech is great it allows us to communicate freely and at any time we want, we can ring our aunts in South Africa our friends in America and chat up an Italian bird all at the same time, it leads to competition in business thereby lowering costs for us.
And hell i would say that i could not be my quaint 1950's self if it were not for tech because i could not access the music, records are too expensive to keep stocked on shelves and what have you, i would have to keep with the times! and who the bloody hell would like to see a modern me? i for one would not!
So on that i leave you with this quote from Albert Einstein
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