Many organizations have been concerned lately with the implications of the increased and prolonged use of multiple screens by young and also older people. The Kaiser family foundation, Ipsos, The Pew Research Center, and others have conducted studies in which they have found that the access to smartphones in particular has increased dramatically. Also, that infants use tablets and smartphones even when watching television. Many report fatigue and other strain related issues. And as we know some run into walls and have accidents when driving, biking, etc. while texting or doing some other activity on their mobile devices.
Many eschew direct social contact to favor technology. A New Yorker cartoon recently showed two teenage girls talking while looking at their smartphones and one stated that it should be a special boy that is the one that she first looks directly in the eyes. Families sitting at tables in restaurants are many times found busily looking at their smartphones as opposed to engaging in interpersonal face to face interactions. Many look at their different social media accounts while watching television or doing almost anything else.
What has the world come to?!
The world has experienced many important revolutions, evolutions, and discontinuities. The digital era has brought about a challenging environment that in some ways divides old from young, and those technologically connected and those that are not yet.
Clearly, some of the negative implications, which are more easily drawn, include:
- Social dysfunction and lack of interpersonal skills
- Isolation and daunting individualism
- Obesity and ill health due to lack of physical activity
- Life span decreasing and quality of life deteriorating
- Illiteracy because of lack of reading and writing in grammatically accepted ways
- Increased selective exposure to materials that agree with one’s points of view, thus polarizing society further
- Formal education becoming less important and attractive to young people
These are just some of the potential ills that our new society may witness evolving over the next years. But, like most things in life, there may be different effects as well. As Jon Stewart found when he used to consult with his “senior speculators” many perspectives and alternative futures may materialize.
What if what we are witnessing now in terms of technology impact is just a transitional phase leading us to a more interesting and challenging future? What if alternative realities materialize?
Think for example, that looking at screens is just a temporary phase in the evolution of technology. We know that soon there will be technology increasingly present in our eyeglasses, earpieces, clothing, accessories, and perhaps even implanted in our brains. The emergence of virtual reality and other technological evolutions will change our behavior and probably enhance our skills as well.
Also, who will be best prepared to take on the evolutionary turns that technology will bring? As we have seen in multiple pieces of research including my own, Hispanics, Blacks, and Asians have outpaced non-Hispanic Whites in their use of new technologies. Does that mean they will be better prepared for the future? Will social classes flip so that the “have-nots” of today become the “haves” of tomorrow. Will the agents of change be the minorities of today?
What consequences may current and future technologies bring?
- Brain transformations that allow for increased multitasking and multiple brain operations at once thus making us more versatile in our dealings with people and objects
- Increased and constant social interaction by dramatically increasing and diversifying our social networks to extents never possible before
- Increased physical activity as technology will allow for exercise while being virtually connected literally “on the run”
- Integration of virtual and physical networks to extents never imagined so that people with common interests can navigate between virtual and physical worlds fluidly
- “Electronic propinquity” or virtual personal nearness will allow for intimacy with distant people who are dear to us and allow for relationships that go beyond what we have known as a relationship
- Education will become more challenging and interesting as lectures and formal settings become a thing of the past and experiential learning becomes more prevalent
- Images and sounds will become the new literacy as our brains become more capable of comprehending the world in more complicated symbolic forms
- Linear literacy will be replaced with immersion literacy, in which one experiences symbols
- By being connected with distant multiple and diverse others our ability to empathize and understand differences will increase
- Life spans will continue to increase as exercise and healthy habits are reinforced by new technologies
Alternative worlds can be envisioned and contemplated. Multiculturalism may become more of a reality and also a benefit as humans interconnect at more levels. Members of current minorities may have an edge because of their earlier immersion in the “tech” code of doing things.
The moral of the story is: Alternative futures may surprise you!
