Technology & Social Media

"The computing power of the modern phone is greater than that used by NASA to send men to the moon." "We hold in our hand the ability to access the world's knowledge." - With acknowledgement to Sandi Toksvig.

What do we do with this modern marvel? We are so self absorbed & superficial that we post on Social Media that we are drinking coffee. We post innumerable selfies, which only a miniscule number of our nearest & dearest would be in the least bit interested in. We post links to dodgy websites. We post cute photos of animals doing funny things. We do mindless quizzes. We play computer games. We allow adverts to colonise our page.....

I have no doubt that we who are alive today in the developed & developing world are very lucky. Our lives have been enriched & enhanced by man's technological development. We have the capacity to change the world for the better. What do we do with this amazing gift - instead of using it for good we trivialise & demean it.

I see dozens of  people glued to their phones every day. Are they extending what they know? Are they mobilising action against injustice? Sometimes yes, but mostly no. Are they communicating important information - mostly not.

The only light I see on the horizon is the fact that in awful, (in the true sense of the word), events like Manchester mobile phones are indispensible.

We really should value technology & learn to use it wisely & for good reasons. We shouldn't allow ourselves to become dependent on it to the exclusion of actually talking to other human beings. If, for some reason it is taken away from us when we are wholly dependent on it, as in the recent NHS hack, what the hell will we do?