Technology in the modern era

                Life is fairly simple. You take it day by day, one item at a time. In this modern era, technology is rapidly growing, and there is no way to avoid or work around it. Think about a simple magazine ad; chances are, there is technology portrayed in the article, whether it’s a website or a publishing company. Humans simply revolve around technology, and the concept is frightening. We as a civilization have adapted to focusing on technology, and not life as it is in general. A popular YouTube star named Dennis Roady performed a social experiment by hanging a one-hundred dollar bill in a tree overlooking a popular side walk. The point was to prove that by constantly watching your phone instead of the world around you, you can miss out on valuable experiences. The video can be viewed HERE. Roady filmed for nearly two hours, and the video shows 26 people on their phones as they walk under the money. If they had simply payed attention, they could be one-hundred dollars richer. This is only one example of why putting the phone down could be beneficial.

            Technology has many disadvantages in our modern world. Although most of us have grown up with it all, it can be a positive choice to stay away from it. Take social media, for example. You find out that your favorite college football team has lost their head coach with a winning record, and you take to Facebook to vent your feelings. Although it may not seem like a big deal at the time, you find out months down the road that you have been chosen to be that team’s public announcer at games. You are ecstatic after being hired, to find out that the University has viewed your Facebook and seen your epic rant about the firing. Due to this harmless rant, you have now lost your dream job. This is actually a true story, and happened here at UNL a few weeks ago. The story can be found HERE. Long story short, social media is one small element of technology and whether you view it as good or bad, it can come back to bite you in the rear.

            In the end, it all comes down to missing out on valuable life experiences. Nowadays, it seems as if people just want to be consumed by technology, which is acting as tunnel vision so to say. Technology is blinding us all, regardless of what you try to do to remedy it. Life would be very different in this world if people decided to adopt old school ways and shut out the technological aspect of the world.