Modern tech's influence on the average consumer
I'm just your average Joe. I don't run a multi-million business and don't ride fancy cars. I'm also not a monk living in the mountains. Just a regular consumer, likely just like you. As an average consumer, I use a lot of different technologies - phone, computer, all the software that are on those devices.
There are certain software products that I use most often - ones that have dominated my day-to-day attention. These software products are:
- Social media like Reddit and Instagram
- Developer software such as VSCode and GitHub
Over my lifetime, they have left both positive impacts on me, as well as left some scars that I'm still recovering from.
In this article we will explore the good and the bad effects that the corporate tech giants have had on our day-to-day lives.
Abudance of information
I heard someone once say that someone in the stone age would learn/consume as much amount of information within their lifetime as we do in a single day. I don't know how true it is, but it sounds pretty plausible.
Probably the most apparent impact that all the tech giants and technology in general has left on society is the abudance of information.There is unlikely to be a thing that you can't type into Google that won't bring up relevant results. Even typing something random, like 'asfgafg' can bring some results.
In my eyes, this can be both a good and a bad thing, but which one it is, depends on what information you consume and how much of it you consume.
There are good types of information online and bad types. Good types include anything that grows you as a person, teaches you useful knowledge or entertains you without being an obvious attention grab or a 'dopamine hit'. The bad ones are the types such as disinformation, 'dopamine hit' media, negativity.
My self-coined term 'dopamine hit media' refers to a type of media that is aimed to maximally stimulate the consumer and doesn't provide any useful purpose other than being entertaining and 'pleasant'. Examples include - funny videos and marketing media that tries to play on the consumer's emotions to draw them in
It's important to carefully pick which information you consume in your daily life and filter out any low quality information, as this has a significant impact on your mental health, especially in our modern age where we consume so much information on a daily basis.
Information overload, or a related term Anaylsis paralysis is when you have so much information at your disposal that you are paralyzed by the sheer amount of it, and in effect are unable to make a solid decision. To counter this, limit your consumption of information and only seek it when you truly can't figure it out by yourself.
Addiction
The second most apparent thing in my eyes that modern tech has brought us, are addictions. I'm personally addicted to tech and am trying to recover from that, so I can vouch for the effects that addiction to tech can have on you, and the effects of freeing yourself from this addiction. Probably the most visible effect of having a tech addictions is the lack of time for other activities. Someone who is addicted to tech will spend most of their time using it, limiting the time they can devote to other activities such as relationships, hobbies and health.
Freeing yourself from tech addiction is a battle whose benefits are greatly worth it. The first step to getting rid of this addiction is acknowledging that you have it (if you have it, of course). The next steps are beyond this article but if you look around Google you should find some useful tips on what to do next (but take into account the advice from the previous section!)
It's also worth noting that freeing yourself from the addiction of technology doesn't necessarily mean to never use technology. You can use technology just as much as a tech addict does, and not be addicted. The differentiating factor is how much you let it control you, and how easily you can say 'no' when you need to.
Efficiency
So far we've talked mostly about the negative aspects of tech. But don't get me wrong, I don't think that tech is exclusively a bad thing and should be avoided. Rather, I think that tech can be either a good or a bad thing, depending on how you use and consume it.
One positive thing that tech has given us is a tremendous boost in productivity and efficiency. We can achieve so much more with tech than we could without it. For example, if we see online a very beautiful picture that we want to print out and hang on our wall, we can easily do it. Without technology, something as simple as printing out a picture would simply be impossible. Tech has helped us do tasks that once took hours or even days to do, now often in mere seconds.
Conclusion
In this article we explored some ways how modern tech has affected our day-to-day lives, both in good ways and bad ones. I hope you learned something new from this article, and if you have any comments, questions or suggestions, feel free to send them to me at jorensmerenjanu@gmail.com