{"id":35312,"date":"2017-07-20T12:00:20","date_gmt":"2017-07-20T19:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=35312"},"modified":"2017-01-21T20:45:53","modified_gmt":"2017-01-22T04:45:53","slug":"is-technology-downgrading-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/20\/is-technology-downgrading-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Technology Downgrading You?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Berkeley, 2015 #cindyproject<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We always make the wrong assumption that by buying new gadgets, phones, and devices\u00e2\u20ac\u201d we will somehow \u00e2\u20ac\u0153upgrade\u00e2\u20ac\u009d our lives.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But what if the opposite were true \u00e2\u20ac\u201d that by buying these new devices and tech, you are actually downgrading<\/em> yourself?<\/p>\n

Attention is your most valuable commodity<\/h2>\n

The problem of having all these new devices and technology in our life is this: it sucks away our attention.<\/p>\n

Our attention is now our most valuable commodity. We only start with a certain amount of attention. And the more notifications, text messages, emails, and vibrations of your phone \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the more attention is being sucked away from you.<\/p>\n

We are suckered into thinking that having more<\/em> technology is going to make us more<\/em> efficient, more<\/em> productive, and more<\/em> happy.<\/p>\n

But more stuff usually equals more problems. More devices mean more<\/em> things to charge, more<\/em> things to update, and more<\/em> things to worry about.<\/p>\n

I know for me personally \u00e2\u20ac\u201d I am a sucker to this. I remember at one point, I would feel \u00e2\u20ac\u0153paralysis by analysis\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153choice overload\u00e2\u20ac\u009d when it came to reading e-books. Should I read a book on my Kindle, on my iPad, on my phone, or my laptop? I would waste precious attention, energy, and focus \u00e2\u20ac\u201d trying to make this stupid decision.<\/p>\n

What I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done (at the moment) is getting rid of my Kindle and iPad, and uninstalling the Kindle app from my phone. Now all my reading is done on my laptop, as .ePub books in the mac iBooks app, or just reading PDF\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s. It isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the most \u00e2\u20ac\u0153optimal\u00e2\u20ac\u009d solution, but it certainly makes life less complicated, and less distracted.<\/p>\n

Is technology empowering, or de-powering you?<\/h2>\n

Steve Jobs once thought of building the personal computer to be a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153bicycle for the mind.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d In the past, computers did really empower people to do these amazing things. And of course they still do.<\/p>\n

But the cynic in me is starting to see how technology is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153de-powering\u00e2\u20ac\u009d us. Rather than using the amazing tools of technology to build, create, and be creative \u00e2\u20ac\u201d we are suckered into becoming passive consumers. We watch YouTube, mindlessly scroll through our social media feeds, and binge Netflix. Rather than going out with the cameras we already own and taking photos, we waste time on camera review blogs, wishing we had a newer and better camera.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen this (or perhaps been a victim yourself) \u00e2\u20ac\u201d you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re at a restaurant, having dinner with your partner or friends. Then instead of talking with your friends in real life, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re both looking at your phones. Or one person is looking at their phone, and their poor partner is left feeling neglected. Is social media really empowering us in this way, or de-powering us?<\/p>\n

How to be less distracted in today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s world<\/h2>\n

The human mind has a limit in terms of how much information we can process. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve always tried to become more effective, efficient, and optimal in my life and work. But in reality, no tools, technology, app, gadget, or widget is going to help improve you.<\/p>\n

Rather, the only thing we can upgrade is our mind. Our personal philosophy of living. To seek to have fewer<\/em> distractions in our life, in order to have more<\/em> focus.<\/p>\n

Practical remedies for myself have included:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Everyday uninstalling one (superfluous) app from my phone<\/li>\n
  2. Everyday spending less time on my phone (or better yet, keeping it on airplane mode, silent mode, or turning it off completely)<\/li>\n
  3. Limiting my screen-time in the evening<\/li>\n
  4. Turning off wifi when I need to do real work<\/li>\n
  5. Installing browser extensions that block distracting websites, or limit my access to them<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So when it comes to any technology \u00e2\u20ac\u201d be a skeptic. I love technology and how it has increased access, information, and empowered many creative people (myself included).<\/p>\n

    But there is also a dark side. We are trading our personal information for free social media services and cat videos. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re trading our precious attention to have our eyeballs manipulated by more advertisements. Is the trade-off really worth it?<\/p>\n

    There are no right and wrongs \u00e2\u20ac\u201d only right and wrong for yourself.<\/p>\n

    Just be conscientious, and don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be a sucker.<\/p>\n

    Always,
    \nEric<\/p>\n

    Learn more: Philosophy ><\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    We always make the wrong assumption that by buying new gadgets, phones, and devices\u00e2\u20ac\u201d we will somehow \u00e2\u20ac\u0153upgrade\u00e2\u20ac\u009d our lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35213,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/eric-kim-photography-Cindy-Project-black-and-white-11-stress-anxiety-hand-glass.jpg?fit=4928%2C3264&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}