I meant that life has been altered by technology and not necessarily enhanced. Yes technology has improved considerably and no one will say other otherwise.
We're talking about degrees of improvement here. You're saying technology pros slightly outweigh the cons whereas I'm saying the opposite, the pros are so monumental, the cons don't even begin to compare. But...
As to the altered vs enhanced state of life, while things like GPS and online banking are convenient people could easily live without them. And I don't think it has enhanced peoples' lives bc this level of convenince and immersion into the digital realm makes it so that there are no boundaries. My phone is on me all the time so theoretically I can be reached all the time, but I may not want to be reached all the time so I might ignore calls/text or just reply with a one word answer, but people expect your phone to be on you.
Life before computers had the same expectations. If you had a phone, there was expectations that you'd be able to answer that phone whenever it rang within reasonable hours like when you're off or before you go to work.
Having the phone on you more doesn't change that expectation because the phone is inherently supposed to be the means of contact. It's supposed to let people contact you whenever.
My money is digital so spending becomes extremely easy and almost an illusion. I'm not handing over cash so my sense of how much I'm spending is thrown off.
That seems like a personal issue, not technology and purely anecdotal. You can still hand over cash if you want to so it feels less of an illusion to you. Having online and mobile banking enhances the experience making it easier and less time consuming to go to the bank, talk with a rep/teller, write checks, etc.
Online banking keeps a record of all my actions so I can focus on the final number instead of having an idea of whats going in and out and in what sequence (them numbers move around).
Again, same thing. Banks still give out check books with the accounting pages so you can bookkeep all your invoices by hand. Now, there's apps that can do that and all you have to do is download it and put in your bank account. That's game changing and allows people who never was able to manage their accounts to have a computer do it for them and more accurately with warning texts when you're about to go overboard.
Communication has become tone deaf and extremely impersonal. Text conversations just start and stop without a hello and goodbye to sandwich the conversation. Also replies can be strategically timed or just extremely late.
Text does that to an extent. It'll never outdo video chat which is pretty popular now. So there's that?
While I understand the flipside of technology giving access to people, and convenience in making decisions, I don't think it necessarily helps you actually interact with the person or make the decision. Information overload is real. Stimulation overload is numbing. Communication overload is misleading.
Technology allows people to connect across the planet. It also allows us to check on anything we're about to do or purchase because making that decision. All those overloads are real but we, for now, still have to the choice to opt out of all this shyt.
I know people who don't have any trace on the internet. Ask me that shyt in twenty years and I'm sure my answer will be different and THEN I'll start to agree with you... maybe.
