My English professor wrote to my class, saying that the moment we cannot put down our technology, we become a slave to it.
I'll undermine the sentiment of this statement by adding that not only has our entire species been slaves to technology since the dawn of humanity, technology has been the best thing to ever happen to us.
Technology encompasses every tool that was created from a mixture of intellect and resources from one's environment. From using sounds to invent languages (You didn't think language just fell out of the sky, did you?) to simple wooden spears to the Apollo Lunar Landers, technology is everything to us.
Our human ancestors used technology long before our species existed, and our species has continued to evolve to have bigger brains as our survival became increasingly linked with our ability to develop better tools.
In this age of the Internet, moon landings and smart phones, many well-intentioned individuals have expressed lamentation toward technology, as they believe it threatens to destroy something fundamentally human about us.
Understandably, the growing irrelevance of traditional mainstays like reading physical books and newspapers has upset many people. Things that were once an integral part of life have been lost and are being replaced by modern technology.
However, these things that we are losing were at one point the new technologies on the block threatening to alter our way of life. Eventually, the things that seem new and worrisome now will become old and familiar.
The growing dependence of our society on technology is probably the most human development we could experience. If there is one thing we could do that would seem to be antithesis to human nature, it would be to resist the development of better technology to change our ways of life.
The advent of technologies like social networks and smart phones may change how we interact, but they don't change how we actually are. Constantly trying to improve our lives through technology is a fundamental human characteristic.
Our need to push the limits of technology has allowed us to live longer and more satisfying lives, and our resistance towards new tech only slows down our ability to progress as a society. The invention of the written language once fundamentally altered the way we store and communicate information, just as the Internet has done in the modern era. In time, rather than appearing alien to us, the Internet will feel as cozy a good book.
The almost exponential growth in technology in the past few decades is a sign that humanity has finally begun to streamline the very thing that separates humans from the rest of the world.
Reach the columnist at Jacob.Evans@asu.edu or follow him at @JacobEvansSP
