The Technology Effect
I've often wondered whether the technology effect is good or bad. By the technology effect I mean the fact that you can readily find information on just about anything online, and you can use your devices for almost everything. For the most part, I love it. What I don't love is the fact that I don't seem to really know things anymore. I rely on Google to give me answers to my questions, my digital calendar to remind me of appointments, my phone to wake me up and do basic math, Facebook to tell me when there's a birthday and remind me what I was doing at this time last year.
Growing up, my parents always encouraged us to find answers to our questions. Any time we asked them something, they'd say, "Look it up." What they really meant was that we should consult an encyclopedia or a dictionary. We had about four different sets of encyclopedias (maybe five?), which are now sorely out-dated. I miss looking things up in a book.
Searching for subjects in Funk & Wagnalls always got me interested in the other things that were on the same page. The interesting thing about Google, though, is that it suggests what you might be looking for as you type. I guess that's sort of the same as looking at other articles on the same page. When I start to search for "how you get rid of gnats," it suggests that I might also be interested in how you get pink eye or ringworm or bed bugs. Random.
A few days ago, I realized with dismay that I was forgetting my times tables. I couldn't readily think of what 6 times 8 was. I don't know if I was just tired or what. But it came as a shock to me that I might legitimately need to go back to grade school.
In some ways, I long for those days when we did everything without the aid of technology. We read actual maps to get where we were going, and sometimes got lost. We pulled over at a gas station on our way somewhere if we needed to make a phone call (on a pay phone). We wrote reminders to ourselves on a piece of paper in our purse or pocket. We tried to remember what things looked like because we couldn't take a million pictures of it.
I need to practice knowing things again... without the aid of technology. Maybe I'll start with my times tables.
Growing up, my parents always encouraged us to find answers to our questions. Any time we asked them something, they'd say, "Look it up." What they really meant was that we should consult an encyclopedia or a dictionary. We had about four different sets of encyclopedias (maybe five?), which are now sorely out-dated. I miss looking things up in a book.
Searching for subjects in Funk & Wagnalls always got me interested in the other things that were on the same page. The interesting thing about Google, though, is that it suggests what you might be looking for as you type. I guess that's sort of the same as looking at other articles on the same page. When I start to search for "how you get rid of gnats," it suggests that I might also be interested in how you get pink eye or ringworm or bed bugs. Random.
A few days ago, I realized with dismay that I was forgetting my times tables. I couldn't readily think of what 6 times 8 was. I don't know if I was just tired or what. But it came as a shock to me that I might legitimately need to go back to grade school.
In some ways, I long for those days when we did everything without the aid of technology. We read actual maps to get where we were going, and sometimes got lost. We pulled over at a gas station on our way somewhere if we needed to make a phone call (on a pay phone). We wrote reminders to ourselves on a piece of paper in our purse or pocket. We tried to remember what things looked like because we couldn't take a million pictures of it.
I need to practice knowing things again... without the aid of technology. Maybe I'll start with my times tables.
 |
| Image by Julia Schwab from Pixabay |
Comments
Post a Comment