Blog Post #12: Can We Find Balance Between Living With and Without Technology?

The argument around technology seems to consist of exploring the extreme side of things; living a life completely glued to your phone, unable to acknowledge to world around you versus shutting off your phone and unplugging entirely. The reason these extremes are at the forefront of how people view technology is because we have yet to learn how to manage them and make them comprehensible. This idea is outlined very clearly in Alexandra Samuel’s “Plug in Better” where she says “the idea of unplugging for family time just sets up the unwindable war between family intimacy and online connectivity” (3). Although the example here uses unplugging for family time, the idea still applies to many other aspects of life. Essentially what Samuel explains is forcing people to unplug in order to do other activities they don’t want to do is the opposite of productive. I think of the times where parents tell their teens “no phones when we are with family” or when I’ve turned off my phone to study. Unplugging for short amounts of time, especially during a time when you’re more anxious or irritated, only makes you want your phone more because you begin associating that feeling of comfort with having your phone. However, those extremes aren’t the only sides of the technology argument. At this point in our lives it is almost impossible to live without the incessant bombarding of information from technology but, in moderation, technology can become essential to life. It has already brought about so many advances in the world of medicine, like the cancer research effort, and communications around the globe. Once again, Alexandra Samuel offers some advice on how exactly we can monitor our technological endeavors; “Use the internet to reinforce your resolve to focus on what matters most” (4). Samuel suggests that, instead of taking the easy way out and just unplugging from the information, you should actively focus on the task at hand and not allow yourself to pay attention to the extra information. By monitoring how often and for what purpose we are using technology for, we can find balance between living with and without technology.