Dwain Northey (Gen X)

I was driving this morning and the GPS on my phone was seriously lagging behind where I actually was, and I found myself getting angry and impatient with the technology.

Why am I telling anyone reading this about my morning navigation issue… well it got me thinking about how since with advances in Technology we have become quicker to respond with anger and frustration over something that 10 years ago would not have even been a concern. In the early 2000s when it came to navigation you used a map or printed google maps directions, which usually got you lost, but we didn’t rely on technology to hold our hand all the way through the process. I can still read a map, but I have become more and more dependent on GPS technology to get me to unfamiliar destinations.

It seems that every advance has made us more impatient and ignorant of how to do things that to previous generations found to be commonplace task.

I am old enough to remember not having a microwave… In the summer when I was little, I loved Spaghetti O’s with meatballs, would go to the corner store and buy a can come home and cook them in a pot on the stove. It really wasn’t a task that I found out of the ordinary, my son if it isn’t fast food or something he can heat up in the microwave it’s too much effort. Just that little step of heating something up on the stove or pushing a few buttons has made a generation too lazy and impatient to accomplish even minor tasks.

I am all for technology and the ways it has helped make things more convenient, but I am afraid that it is also breeding complacency, ignorance and impatience.

Has anyone seen the Disney animated movie Wallie? In the film man has had to leave earth and been on board star ships for a long time and hadn’t had to use their legs for mobility, the people had become so dependent on floating chairs that they couldn’t walk on their own. I don’t see us getting to that level of dependence on technology but sadly in other aspects I do see the reliance on machines and computers becoming and global addiction.  

I am not the only person that feels that this is the direction our species is going… here is one UK study that sums it up.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/technology-is-making-us-more-impatient-says-study/

Thank again for your reading my Ted Talk (LOL)