Monday, January 12, 2015

Did we just design ourselves into a dependent bubble?


Kids these days with their mobile tel-lee-phone and their tweeters with their gimme-gimme-gimme-now-now-now. Lazy-spoiled brats! Back in my day...  

It is difficult to go anywhere without noticing someone on some kind of electronic device. Hell, I am on one now. I kind of need to be using an electronic device to communicate with anyone these days. I need a computer to check important personal accounts and to do my work. Even an amount of my leisure time is spent on YouTube or looking through Pinterest. We have advanced so much with technology that we're starting to not design libraries in schools (That is kind of scary to say). My most recent educational project was designing a high school. We were shut down at the hint of mentioning a library in the program. The director pulled out his smartphone saying "This is my library. I have the world at my fingertips!" Also, three to four years ago my own high school announced they were renovating the library into.... a cafe... I spent many, many minutes in that library and now it is a cafe?! The books in the library were so random and seldom relevant to anything I needed to research, but that is a tangent I should probably refrain from going towards.


(Video is of Louis C.K on Conan O'Brian talking about his plane experience )

I get it! We get information so much faster, with more choices and with great quality. Wait a couple of years and it will get even better! We also start becoming impatient because we are accustomed to instant gratification. Does instant gratification contribute to anxiety? I think so. You could make a drinking game on how many times a person refreshes a page when you're next to someone checking their Facebook on a slow connection. Any little notification 'ping' or highlight and the person is right back on the screen. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people are on their phone or pad during a meal. It is fine if you're by yourself, but at least have enough respect to give your company your attention (little rant, sorry). A lot of people just don't know how to be alone with themselves. That is a pretty tough pill to swallow when you can't stand being alone with yourself. It is almost comical that if you have done something wrong in jail they put you alone with yourself as a punishment.

I suppose today would be one of the worst days to try to be independent from technology because it is the start of the work week and everyone is trying to get back into the routine. I am not saying be totally independent, but just a having little alone time throughout the day dedicated to something that makes you happy.

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