I sit on the side of the vast swimming pool of technology, my ankles in the water, suntan lotion covering what a bathing suit does not. I like to watch the people come and go, but sometimes I’ll dive in to a part of the pool that seems appealing. Those parts are rare, however, at least from my vantage point. I’m suspicious whenever I see a crowd, even if a part of my brain is wondering if they know something I don’t.
I can overcome this skepticism, at times. I was heavily skeptical of smartwatches until I decided to try a Pebble on a self-imposed dare. Now, I’m a smartwatch convert, even as more than a few Apple Watch early-adopters have given up on the platform. But right now, the big things I see my fellow tech people gushing over leave me wanting. It’s not that I don’t see potential or utility in any of these, but that I don’t see enough. For some of these technologies, all I can see is downside. Best to go through the list.
Virtual Reality
Virtual Reality is big again. It’s been a technology that has been just on the cusp of bring the Next Big Thing for over two decades, but now, they seem to have cracked it. I’ve not tried the Oculus Rift—I don’t have that kind of money, or a desire to own a Windows PC—but I’ve played with a Samsung Gear VR. It’s come a long way from the giant, heavy, clunky helmets I used to play Duke Nukem 3D at an amusement park in 1996. On a purely technical level, it’s safe to say that Virtual Reality has arrived.
But, so far, all I’ve seen VR used for is really neat tech demos and video games. I have yet to see any great applications that take advantage of Virtual Reality to do anything more groundbreaking than the aforementioned Duke Nukem 3D VR deathmatch from 20 years ago. There’s nothing wrong with a technology that exists purely for entertainment, but that doesn’t match up with the sheer hype I keep hearing. Did Facebook really buy Oculus to make video games, or something more?
I’m skeptical of VR, because I don’t see many uses for it outside of entertainment. Some suggest it would be a great tool for engineers, and that’s reasonable. If you’re building a structure, the ability to explore it in VR is a potential boon, but is it better than a rendered walk through on a computer screen? I’m not sure. Even if VR makes inroads in business, what does it do for the home user, outside of entertainment? VR FaceTime? Second Life has its niche of users, but if VR is the next big thing, it’ll have to find some appeal to millions of people who don’t want to play video games, or pretend to be six-foot tall walking genitalia in cyberspace.
Smart Homes and the Internet of Things
The Smart Home is another idea that has been on the cusp for the last several decades. It was the subject of a Looney Tunes cartoon from 1947, for crying out loud. Omnipresent wireless connectivity has made it easier and more functional, but it still seems like a fragile, technology demo to me. Why do I need to turn out the lights from my smartphone when I can just stand up and walk ten steps to the switch? Why does my washing machine need to send me a text message when it’s done a cycle, when I can just set a timer on my phone? What do I do with all my smart home gadgets when I move?
And that’s before you factor in the security holes, or the very real possibility that the company you bought your home automation gear from might brick your device for no good reason. There’s a chance that the security stuff will get ironed out in time. The utility factor, not so much.
Self-Driving Cars
I remain skeptical of self-driving cars, not because I don’t think the technology will work, but because I feel they’re solving the wrong problem. The promoters of self-driving cars saw the existing urban and suburban infrastructure—often the sprawling road and highway focused infrastructure of the West Coast—and have tailored a solution optimized for it. It’s a clever hack, repurposing existing infrastructure for a new kind of networked transportation model, but it is still a hack.
On the East Coast, or at least the Northeastern Megalopolis where I live, there’s less—but not zero—road and highway sprawl. Jobs and homes are more centralized, and we have existing, high-efficiency, high-capacity transit systems to ferry us most of the way between. We’re better suited, I think, to mass transit. Self-driving cars may kill traffic jams dead, but in doing so might aggravate suburban sprawl—the last thing we need.
Self-driving car technology could be a huge boon outside of personal, private transportation, but I’ve yet to see anyone talking about using self-driving trucks to carry goods instead of using long-haul truckers. According to the Organisation For Economic Co-Operation And Development, “trucking is by far the most harmful mode of goods transport.” We’re hauling a lot of goods around the United States by truck. Where’s Elon Musk with the Tesla Self-Driving Tractor-Trailer?
AI and Bots
Color me skeptical of the coming AI revolution too. Microsoft’s first go with their Tay AI turned into racist cluster-expletive, and there’s no indication they’ve learned much from the experience. Caroline Sinders breaks down the problems, not just for Microsoft, but for any company who wants to be in this space. Besides, what we’re calling AI these days are really just complex algorithms with some natural language processing to get the inputs right.
I’m not worried about HAL 9000 locking me out of my apartment. I’m worried about more subtle algorithmic horrors. Many algorithms are picking up the unconscious—and conscious—biases of their creators. The results can even be a threat to national security. If the goal of Artificial Intelligence is to create systems that surpass human flaws and foibles, we’ve got an uphill climb at a slope of about 98º right now.
So What Do I Care About?
There’s lot of cool and exciting stuff happening. Electric cars excite me, even if I’m not likely to own one—dense urban dweller that I am. Social media has its problems, but the power of getting the world to communicate together is still incredible to me. I’m amazed at what we can do with more and cheaper sensors, though I worry who has access to that data. I swear that, one day, the context-aware computing future will finally come to pass. Medical science continues to astound me, and if people can get over their irrational fear of genetically modified foods, we could accomplish literal miracles.
But I don’t hear much about those. I’m trying to be less of a pessimist, and assume that when there’s smoke around something, there’s fire. For some of these ideas that are the next big thing coming around again (VR, Smart Homes), I can’t help but be skeptical. We’ve done this dance before. Maybe there’s a real value to all of this, but it’s escaping me. None of the gushing technology press has made the case, let alone the PR departments of the companies promoting the technology.
Maybe it’s me. I don’t want to be the pessimist, stuck in his dumb home staring into rectangles, and typing his queries into a search engine, and taking the train to visit his parents like an animal while the rest of the world lives the Star Trek future. If the rest of the world is seeing something I’m not, I just wish they’d communicate it better.
When people talk about how technology is affecting our lives for the worse, social media is one of biggest culprits. Are we spending too much time on social media? What is the constant connectivity to other people doing to our minds? Isn’t this just voyeurism? Then there’s the infamous study that shows Facebook makes us more depressed, as we stare down the carefully curated best moments of our friends lives. “Forget it,” some say, “Social media is the death of the mind.”
And yet, social media remains a powerful tool for exposing us to new ideas and points of view that would otherwise never penetrate our social bubbles. Twitter likes to use the Arab Spring as an example of the platform’s power, but a better example is the #BlackLivesMatter movement, putting American police brutality against African-Americans in the public spotlight in a way that’s hard to ignore. It allows us to make real, human connections with real human beings, transcending distance. Social media is a boon to society as a whole.
In reality, the truth is somewhere in between. Though it can become a compulsive activity that is dangerous to our mindful well-being, social media’s potential for good means it behooves us to approach it in a more mindful way. What makes social media so tricky to deal with is that it’s both an endless stream of new things to consume, and a gaping maw begging you to fill it with awfully filtered photos of your dinner and jokes about Donald Trump and/or Hillary Clinton.
The first of these is to ask yourself why you are on social media in the first place? Not just why you even have an account, but why you’re opening the app for the umpteenth time today. The answers for these can be different for each network, and even for each day. The important thing is to be aware of the reason. For me, it’s often because I want a friendly human connection and to know what is going on in the world. I’ve been in the midst of an experiment of filtering out most Twitter content that isn’t just a person posting text. Whether the experiment is working is something for another essay, but it’s been a valuable way of rethinking how I use Twitter as a service.
We need to know why we are on social media. By diving into a social stream without intention, we run the risk of getting lost in it. We may post something dumb or hurtful, or just lose track of time. Awareness and intention are key. There’s nothing wrong with checking your Instagram while waiting in line at the grocery store, as long as you know you’re only dipping a toe in to fill the time. (Seriously. Put your phone away when you’re with the cashier.)
The second thing to ask yourself is what you hope to get from your social media experience. I want to be aware of issues technology and society from different viewpoints, so I use Twitter to follow a diverse group of people with different opinions than I have on many issues. By way of example, though I’m an ardent atheist, I follow several people of devout faith, including a Catholic priest. I appreciate their alternate perspective on matters in the world, though I don’t always agree with them. Of course, it helps that they’re all pleasant and friendly people to boot. There’s room to improve on this measure, to be sure. I’m not following many people of color, for example. Still, having these alternative perspectives means a lot to me.
Finally, the last thing to ask yourself is how much you can accept missing out on. The truth of the matter is, we’re going to miss out on something in our social streams. Accepting this is the first step. I’ve only been able to keep up with my Twitter stream for the most part, because of the deliberate filtering I’m applying. I know I’m missing out on a lot, and I’m largely okay with it. On days when I check the app for the first time and find more Tweets than I can comfortably read in a sitting, I have no compunction against scrolling right to the top and accepting that what I miss, I miss.
As long as we are using social media on our own terms, we’re already ahead of the game. Most social networks are designed to keep us clicking, scrolling, liking, and posting. It’s how they collect the data that pays for catered lunches and corporate retreats. It’s incumbent on us, the users, to set our the boundaries that they can’t. We can learn to say no, learn to quit the app, and learn to read without reacting. It just takes time, effort, and a willingness to accept that we might miss out on something. But, that’s just life.
I wonder how much better we could make online spaces if we took more cues from farmers. Because any farmer can tell you, the deer will never decide to stop being deer. It’s your job to protect your garden. Or, at least, make it inhospitable enough that the pests move on to the next one.
Too many people who build spaces online suffer from a blind spot on human behavior. They either are blind to the idea that some people are going to trash a public space, (see also Microsoft’s Tay bot for just the latest in a long string of examples), or they are blind to the idea that curation is necessary to a good community. It is no longer enough to just build something and wait for people to come. Online spaces need care, curation, and cultivation. Anything less is just begging for the deer to destroy your crops.
In the previous pieces in this series, I’ve tried to offer solutions and experiments for using technology more mindfully without adding anything new to your technology stack, save for a free app to track your computer usage. I’ve also tried to do the same without demanding you throw away something you thought was a worthwhile investment. The reason is simple: throwing more technology at the problem is sometimes more placebo than panacea—and can often make things worse. Better to make do with what you have already, and learn how to use it better.
We need to solve our problems involving technology at the right level. Is Facebook keeping you from getting your work done, or is your work making you want to check Facebook? I know that when I’m lost and confused as to what is best to spend my time on, that’s when I’m most likely to fall into an Internet K-Hole. Since I don’t know what to do, I’ll do the easiest, most dopamine-boosting thing I know. Before I know it, the tab bar in my browser is a series of ten-pixel wide click targets with no text, and it’s time for me to consider going to bed. I will… Once I read through each damn tab. In fact, I mode switched so I could finish writing this, moving from my Mac at my desk, to my iPad. Here, I can type in slightly more peace, and distractions are slightly harder to get to.
When we look at our technology usage, we need to consider not just what we use and how, but how also why we use them—or don’t use them, depending on what we’re trying to fix. It is the “why” that remains most unexamined, of course. It’s easier to just slap on another technological band-aid, hence the proliferation of Focus Timers, Task Managers, Distraction-Free Writing Environments, Time Tracking Apps, tools to block time-wasting sites, and—yes—reviews, guides, and self-righteous thinkpieces on all of the above.
There’s nothing wrong with having technological solutions for technological problems, when they’re the right solutions… If blocking Facebook between the hours of 8 AM to 6 PM keeps you working on your work, then more power to you. If a Distraction-Free Writing Environment actually helps you bang out that Great American Novel, keep using it. But if these things aren’t helping, don’t assume that another technological band-aid is going to help, especially when you’re putting that band-aid on a papercut, while your temple bleeds into your eye. (Consider this a more gory version of Merlin Mann’s metaphor of the brain tumor patient who is trying to buy a hat.) The papercut really stings, but your bleeding head is going to be a much bigger problem, and much faster.
Step back and ask yourself, is each piece of problem-causing technology you’re using a cause of your stress, or a symptom? Are you actually overwhelmed or distracted by all the shiny lights, buzzing alerts, and endless streams of shiny new content? Or, is it more likely that you’re using the technology as an excuse for something else that’s keeping you from doing what you’re supposed to be doing?
The answers to these, of course, will depend on what you’re doing, and what you’re not doing. If you’re constantly being distracted by a busy box of pinging and buzzing devices every day, then you’ll want to get that part of the technology under control. If you’re clicking through baby pictures on Facebook instead of starting the Henderson Report, I’m willing to bet Facebook isn’t the problem. It’s something deeper, and instead of looking at new software and hardware, you’ll be better served by looking inside yourself and figuring out the real problem.
How many computing devices do you use daily? Be honest. Count your work computer. I’m going to guess that the bare minimum devices you have will average out to three: a home PC, a work PC, and a smartphone. If you have a fourth, it might be a tablet or e-reader. I have five in my life right now: a laptop, a tablet, a smartphone, an e-reader, and a smartwatch, but I’m an outlier. What are all of these devices for, especially since they can all do so much?
As I mentioned in the previous post in the series, there’s no such thing as a unitasking device anymore. Technology hasn’t just broken down the barriers between work life and home life, it’s broken down the barriers between many of the things we do at work and at home. Despite this, each of our computing devices should still have a specific role in our lives. I mean, you’re not going to do your taxes on your work computer—though you might check Facebook on it, depending on how chill your office is.
To make it all work, It’s become incumbent upon us to create an optimal environments for us to work in. In other words, we need to know how to use our technology to help us switch modes. Why do so many self-employed and remote workers like to set up shop in Starbucks? Because it gives them a different physical space to work in—and a different mental space, too. They use that different physical location as a cue to switch modes, knowing that this is where they get down to work.
One thing I love about my iPad is that I can carry it anywhere, set up shop anywhere with a flat surface, whip out my favorite Bluetooth keyboard, and start writing. I don’t even need WI-Fi to work, but it’s nice to have it. It doesn’t have to be anywhere special. In the mornings, I’ve taken to setting the iPad up on my dining table and banging out Morning Pages—750 words of private writing—every day. [1]
Sure, I could do Morning Pages at my desk, with my big monitor in front of me, my laptop display to the right, and my comfortable desk chair, but there’s something about switching to the iPad at the dining table that feels like I’ve sat down with purpose. Besides, the Mac has my music library, various other apps I can switch to, and endless things to fiddle with. It’s easier for me to single-task on my iPad than it is on my Mac. And first thing in the morning, when I haven’t even had my coffee, that is a godsend.
But you don’t need extra hardware or software to switch modes. It can be as simple as throwing up the app(s) you need to do your work on full screen, carrying your laptop into a different room, or even launching a different web browser. There’s a technology “lifehack†that’s circulated for years of creating a separate user account on your computer just for doing work, versus one for goofing off online. Even turning off the technology in favor of a pen and paper is just another form of mode switching. Whatever it takes to jostle our brains out of existing patterns and tell ourselves that, right now, we are focusing on our work—or focusing on our play, for that matter.