Dependent on Technology?

on Mar 7, 2010

Some of the naysayers of the generation gap say that the new generation is stupid in becoming dependent on technology. I argue that these folks have fallen into a trap and that it’s the case that this “over-dependence” is occurs in every new generation.

So are people so dependent on Wikipedia that they wouldn’t know where to look for information without it? Are they so dependent on calculators that they can’t do math without them? These are valid questions, but so are these: Are we so dependent on electricity that we wouldn’t be able to get work done without it? The Northeast blackout of 2003 shut down cities.

It’s all too easy to criticize others’ dependence on new technologies while we forget our sheer dependence on other less new technologies. In either case, we should be mindful of the things we take for granted. Our society has grown complex enough that there’s no way, nor any desire, to take off our dependence on many technologies. And technology does allow us to do greater, more incredible things.

So is the current generation of people, adapting to new technology, overly dependent on it? What about the rest of us? Are we not dependent on telephones? Are we not dependent on clean water?