Technology Dependence is our Existence

The major question I had when reading this section is why are we (as a culture) so dependent on technologies that have such a negative impact on our environment?

Is it a connivence issue? 

Is it the way the world around us is organized making technology the only way we can do things for ourselves?

I dont believe there is one clear defined answer to any of the questions we have about our reliance on technology.

I believe as a culture, one of the major things we can do to start tackling the issue of our dependence on technology is identifying that we do have a serious problem with this reliance.

        Technology has become such a normal part in our daily lives that we no longer consciously think about our use of technology. It has become so easy to pick up our phone and know in two seconds, how your friend that you haven't seen in a year is doing. Or to get in your car, and pretty much in an instant, have a fully cooked meal coming through your window. What is even more strange to me than our ignorance of using technology, is the huge social and enviromental impacts technology has on everyone's daily lives that we constantly ignore. We all, in some way, know the environmental impact that cars have on the earth. We all know the health impacts a poor diet due to convenience or cost has on our health. But still we ignore this because technology use, which is one of the major reasons these problems are now coming about, are not being changed or even talked about. People know the solutions to environmental or health problems but we still do nothing to change it. These changes are so simple at a fundamental level but still not much is happening to change it (this includes myself). For example, cutting out fast food and exercising regularly can prevent heart decease. Seems like a simple solution right? But still heart disease is at the top of the list for causes of death every year around the world.

            In the section titled "Technological Somnambulism" Bell tries to explain this situation that I described above. He quotes Langdon Winner as he describes Technological Somnambulism by stating "is that we so willingly sleepwalk through the process of reconstituting the conditions of human existence (Bell, pg. 90)"- a phenomenon Winner called technological somnambulism. He then goes on to describe three different aspects of Technological Somnambulism which includes "phenomenology", "culture" and "politics".  The sections that struck me was phenomenology because it is very apparent in our daily lives. 

            Phenomenology was described by Bell as, "the manner in which we experience the phenomena of everyday life (Bell Pg. 90)." He then goes on to talk about routinization. Routine is good way to help understand our dependence of technology and our resistance to change our behavior as a result, even when there are huge impacts we see but choose to do nothing about. A quote from Bell really stood out to me, he states, "The point I am trying to establish is that our technological routines tend to lock us into continuing those routines and into trying only new routines that mesh well with our older ones (Bell, Pg. 91)." I believe this simple statement sums up why we can't make simple changes in our daily behaviors that would reduce some, if not all of the major problems we have; such as health issues and environmental problems. 

           I have found a Youtube video (wow I am relying on technology to make this blog interesting...) that describes some of the issues I found important that were described in the section. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7CKyfW7AbE 

This clip talks about "Changes" in an organizational setting, but I believe some the examples and explanations this interview provides, has some real life applications that we as a culture can use for many situations. These examples can apply to things like technology dependence all the way too daily activities that effect our environment or personal health.

Please comment with any questions you might have about my thinking process of this section. 

Also think about what you do in your daily activities that can be attached to some of the topics in this section. I know personally, I found myself thinking about things I do everyday that could be described in every portion of this reading. 

- Thanks,

     Derek Coe