Technology has changed how we live our lives.
No big surprise there, but how those changes have and continue to evolve has created some unforeseen circumstances.
Stories:
Fuly-wired school district evolving with the times
Kelowna vying for its share of tech economy
Legal ramifications of your online presence
Technological advances creating lazy minds
Social media playing a role in politics
Kelowna using social media to converse with the public
Virtual field trips take students around the world and more
Opinion: Screen-time creating parental nightmare
From the electronic trail of our lives transcribed in the social media mainframe hemisphere to how knowledge is learned in our school system and how we tend to commit less information to memory with a veritable electronic library at our smartphone fingertips, the technological revolution that began in the 1990s keeps branching into new horizons.
Those who have lived through the past 20 years don’t carry on their day-to-day lifestyles like they did two decades ago. We are both more connected to worldwide information and to each other, as email has evolved into texting, Facebooking and Instagram to name just a few of our online communication services.
And it continues to evolve.
But at the same time, we have also become more isolated. On the cover of today’s Kelowna Capital News, you see the hands of four people on their smartphones communicating with others, but how often are people in that predicament oblivious to who or what is happening right next to them?
Steve Jobs, the innovative creator behind the Apple computer success story, envisioned his various computer landmark products, from iTunes and the iPod to the iPhone, not just as mechanical products, but creations that all users would personally relate to—become a part of who they are.
With time, the irony of that philosophy is that personal relationship with our data devices has in fact made us more insulated to what is happening around us as the world becomes more individually accessible.
A new generation of young people who have grown up with these devices face challenges as they enter the workforce and adulthood—the sharing of information that can carry a negative impact, inability to directly communicate with others beyond the isolating world of texting, processing a deluge of information that can be misleading, often intentionally, to base opinions on issues affecting our lives.
As technology continues to evolve, so will the next generation in how they deal with the impact of that technology on their lives and those around them.
The globe may be becoming a smaller place through the technology of social media connection, but it also threatens to be more secluded and detached.
In today’s Kelowna Capital News special report, we look at how technology is changing us and what we will need to do and think about in adapting to what we now know and what is yet to come.