I’m a bit of a geek when it comes to electronics. I love to tinker with the latest gadgets and gizmos and I recently upgraded my phone handset from an iPhone 4S to a snazzy new iPhone 5. While transferring the outrageous amount of data from one handset to the other, I realised just how much I rely on my iPhone to keep my life in order! It got me thinking, do we rely on technology too much?
The current generation, nicknamed Generation Z, is indisputably the most tech savvy and connected generation ever. I am never more than a few feet away from my iPhone, iPad, Laptop or Computer – and if I am, I feel incredibly uneasy!
Gone are the days of walking to the end of the street with your 20 pence to make a call. Now it’s just a case of placing your hand in your pocket and pulling out a palm sized device and having the world at your fingertips.
We live in an age where the concept of knowledge and “knowing stuff” is slowly becoming obsolete. Now if there’s something we want to know, most of the time, we have to do little more than take out our phone and tap a few buttons and we’re met with a plethora of information.
Do we rely on technology too much?
Technology and gadgets are incredibly useful tools in day to day life. I've even managed to get my Great Granny of 78 on the PC and signed up to Facebook! But do we depend on our gadgets and gizmos too much?
If I’m truly honest with myself, I would have to say that without my phone I’d be at a total loss. It has everything on it. My contacts, appointments, photos, emails, notes… You name it and if it can be in digital format, it’s sure to be on my iPhone, iPad or Laptop.
These days you can do pretty much anything online, from socialising to ordering food from your local takeaway. Thanks to the portability of most new gadgets you can do all of this from almost anywhere.
This portability also acts as one of the biggest downsides of gadgets as it means that they make easy targets for opportunistic thieves. Between April 2011 and March 2012, Crime Stoppers alone recovered £7.7m of stolen goods.
Technology is great when it works. Sometimes though there are bumps in the road and things go wrong.
That syncing feeling...
We've all been in that situation, or know someone that has, when your mobile phone has ended up in a toilet, bath or someone’s drink! I myself can attest to the stress it causes. My Blackberry did not mix well with my Coke, that’s for sure. Thankfully, I had my phone insured and I had a replacement within 3 days, had I not had this insurance I can only imagine the cost and stress it would have caused me. Since that day I've always made certain that I have appropriate gadget insurance.
We definitely live in a techno world, there’s no denying it. We’re always connected in one way or another. Do we rely on it too much? I don’t think so. Until there comes a day when we do not feel the need to learn to tie our shoe laces because we have a gadget to do it for us, we’ll never be too reliant!
