Yesterday, I had a discussion with some friends. We talked about the advantages and disadvantages of technological innovation in society. My friends all study natural sciences, so they deal more with technology than I do. While recognizing some of the disadvantages, they all seemed to be more pro-technology than I was. Eventually, I realized something which changed my point of view on this matter significantly. Because we create more advanced technology we speak of “technological innovation”, but isn’t this a biased prompt because of the word “innovation”? If the recently discovered technological development harms our society, should we even speak of “innovation”?
When I enrolled in university, I started changing the way I looked at technology. I have never been a big technophile. I used to play on my PlayStation in high school but all my friends would constantly make fun of my digital incompetence. My mom and my sisters always spend a lot of money on iPhones while I tried to spend very little on a cheap obscure Android mobile. I would still download all the popular applications for the sake of being a teenager trying to fit in, but I would reply late and people critiqued me for going offline in the middle of a WhatsApp conversation. After joining the faculty of Humanities, I realized that I wasn’t the only one struggling with the digitalization of our society. I was even more shocked when I found out people think it’s cool when you limit your digital activities. I got to know people without social media, people who don’t care about news or trends and people without smartphones.
I feel like it’s not just my circle that is trying to move away from technology. People are becoming more aware of the harm and danger of digitalization. The Dutch government, for instance, has banned mobile phones in high school classrooms. Another big event that changed the way we perceive technology has been the covid pandemic. Limiting our real-world social possibilities, most people were reliant on digitalization for upholding social contacts. I believe this confrontation with our increasing digital dependence has made society realize how we are losing grip on our real environments and consequently has caused forms of pushback against further technological implementation.
After the pandemic I found myself spending less time on my phone, an obvious development. Less obvious, however, was the gradual reduction of my screen time. Since about half a year ago, some of my friends have started to complain I am hardly online anymore. Other friends had already left social media, consequently limiting my usage. A few weeks ago I was at a bar with some of my fellow students and we started talking about reading. I realized I had already read about three times more books this year than last year. My classmates were very enthusiastic about reading, so much so that I believed they were undergoing a similar process. I feel a growing consciousness in the people around me concerning their connection to the digital realm, followed by small rejections of modernity. I still think technology has a lot of advantages that can benefit society deeply, but I hope society figures out a healthy way to separate digitalization from the offline environment.
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