Technology is not the enemy!

It’s popular these days for politicians, pundits and professors to decry the death of work!  Is it really justified?  If I say “yes,” then the article stops here, but a no isn’t very useful either.  A few strains of “Everything must change” Judy Collins and some nostalgic slides. A nostalgic slide show from YouTube.  It feels to us that all things tech are coming into our lives a lot faster than we can absorb them into our lifestyles.

Big surprise! Technology has something to do with our lives, not just “stuff” to kill time and clog our family rooms.  I caught a recent PBS “American Experience” segment on the first subway in Boston.  What grabbed be was the learning curve for both it’s developers and the first riders of the system.

1. New technology (electric motors on railroad cars) had to be proven.
2. Existing interests (private trolley service owners) and properties (Boston Commons Park) had to be shaken up and then politically appeased or overpowered.
3. A long work project was launched and completed to dig up the streets, lay the track, build the stations.
4. People had to overcome their fears of the new experience of riding underground (where only the dead and coal miners had been before.)

Over time, adventurous early adopters hopped on and told their friends.  The value of speed and safe conveyance one over the rest.  Voila! Millions of urban commuters from New York to Shanghai and back, and a few “pizza rats” around the world take this mode of transportation every day. You see a similar story line around vacuum cleaners, air transport, using the Internet and maybe soon, self-driving cars, commercial space tourism and who knows?

So what’s the big deal about technology and work?

There is a balance point on which our happiness and performance rest.  When technology becomes the driver of our existence (e.g. cell phones that distract students from learning) then we experience life in a very narrow and addictive format.  The app, the software, the video screen become the frame from which we experience our lives. Just think about a person who goes to a Disney theme park and keeps his eye in the viewfinder of a video camera but never gets a panoramic view of the “magic kingdom.” Or the ten year old son who is so busy playing Pokemon that he never really sees much of the theme park at home and would have been better served by staying home where the Wi-fi connection is stronger, and the refrigerator is only a few steps away.

However, the family that uses their iPhone to find the shortest route to the park can avoid traffic and have a better vacation.  But when your smartphone becomes the vacation experience one wonders if it’s a vacation at all.

Counterbalanced by a healthy set of  human values and creative urges, the app becomes a welcome friend. Rather than be for or against, let’s be more careful about which technologies we bring into our lives and how we integrate them into our daily activities.  I met H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama some years ago at a meeting of international business executives.  (see this article). He addressed the group by saying that nothing is inherently bad or good.  Our actions determine the outcome.  Let’s look at technology with unbiased eyes and neither glorify nor vilify these gadgets.  Let’s use whatever we make and sell for a joyful, happy and fully experienced life!