Entry 2: "The True Cost of Gadgets"

"Well, it turns out the "study" was a simple analysis done by an industry-funded think tank. The technology angle was theirs and the TV news folks just followed along." (pg 107, para. 2)

This quote interested me because it demonstrates what I believe to be one of the major problems of our time: the news media. Although reporting for television or writing a column has always been subject to the author's views, it seems that there is no responsibility anymore. Instead of finding a story, checking the information given by the source and then sharing it with the general public, reporters take information at face value with no questions asked, make a story out to be worse than it actually is, or even worse, allow their views to be bought by the highest bidder or influenced by those of "higher" power. A perfect example is the recent nuclear reactor problems in Japan caused by the tsunami. Splattered all over the news is the terrifying idea that there will be a meltdown with words like dangerous, and uncontrollable, etc. All these words were aimed at terrifying the general public, who for 99% of them have no idea how nuclear reactors work. Apparently the writers reporting on the nuclear reactor never decided to talk to someone of mental substance who has background in nuclear reactor physics. Nor are any of the reports such as one written by Dr. Josef Oehmen from MIT mentioned on the nightly news or offered up on Yahoo as an article of interest. His article shows that much of the reporting is way overblown. It is unfortunate that the bulk of journalists seem to have IQ's on par with dim appliance bulbs or are too focused on sensationalizing everything rather than providing good information to the public.

"Humans, I believe, are naturally drawn to lives and worlds outside of our own" (198).

I think this statement not only depicts a modern day issue but foresees the proportion that the "imagined self" will take in the near future. Nowadays, people can very easily create a virtual life for themselves, whether it is through social networks like facebook on which they can control their image a lot more than in real life, or in online video games like World of Warcraft where they lead a fantasy lifestyle. The boundaries between fiction and reality are becoming blurry and might even disappear. According to me, this is the leading cause for a lot of the tragic (and somewhat absurd) events that have occurred relatively recently, such as the Columbine massacre or the suicide of children who believed they were a part of their video game. With the rate at which technology is advancing, it is scary to imagine how much virtuality, in the future, will be implicated with our real lives.

"It is disconcerting that even in our spare time we flock to malls and arcades for virtual experiences rather than the real thing. There's nothing wrong with a little visual stimulation, but there's more to life." (203)

This quote, and this entire essay, really got me thinking about how we go about our daily lives. It made me realize that today in society we are not taught to truly embrace nature and use senses other than our vision to perceive the world around us. Staying indoors and using technology all day is a terrible habit, which I believe many people do everyday and should attempt to break. As the article states, it's also very important for our health to spend time outdoors, interacting with others, so this should give people some motivation to break this habit. However, when living in a college town, it is easy to become consumed with technology since practically everyone is peer pressured to do so as well. Hopefully the message to spend less time with technology and more time in nature, stimulating all of the senses (not just vision) will eventually lead to a less antisocial and materialistic society.

“The researchers discovered that at the age of four, children could identify about 30 percent of the wildlife and a handful of Pokemon. But by age eight, children were identifying nearly 80 percent of the Pokemon and barely half of the common wildlife species” (200).
This reminded me of a similar study done in America, but instead they used fast food mascots and past presidents of the United States. Both studies reveal how powerful advertizing can be at a young age, and how especially susceptible children are to constant advertizing. In our consumer based society we are inundated with commercials and billboards before we are old enough to discern that we are a specific target audience. Targeting the younger generation, though it is extremely profitable for corporations, can also be dangerous because children still have much to learn about society. The mantra of “buy, buy, buy” is etched into their psyche so that they are a critical part of the consumer culture long before they reach adulthood. Though they may not have their own purchasing power, many children are easily able to sway their parents to get them the latest and greatest gadget, usually through a form of appeasement. It is the advertising that targets children that continues to drive the cycle of our consumer society.

“Modern life is a communications paradox. We are in touch with each other as never before-cell phones, internet, text messaging, email.” (p.203)

This quote made me thinking about how a majority of the technological advancements in our consumer society have to do with improving communication. We have come a long way from the telegraph to the iPhone and Facebook. The advancements we’ve made in the realm of communication have greatly improved in terms of accuracy, speed, and over all function, but at what cost? We can surely benefit in times of crisis and need through quick modes of communication; but, it seems that we at times have come to abuse this technology, often without realizing it. “So what binds us together? Unfortunately, it seems the answer is-stuff.” Many of our interactions whether they be business negotiations, friendships, or relationships exist through some technological device. While cell phones, Skype, email, etc. are definitely valuable, impressive, and innovative forms of modern technology we need to realize the toll such technology can take upon the relationships we have.

"Sustainability is about ensuring that what we do today does not compromise the opportunity and future for our children and grandchildren ... Today most people, myself included, are all agog at the wondrous outpouring of new technology"

I chose this quote because it gets at the necessity of direction in new technology development. While the author was concerned with environmental impact, I am more interested in the substitution of machine for human in the work force. I think the idea of computers as a new species of self-replicating, original actors rather than instruments is very exciting, but would end the “opportunity and future” of our current lifestyle. Being an engineering student makes me about the most natural to replace; what I’ve learned so far, calculators can do better. So, as technology consumption must find equilibrium with environmental health, scientific, consumer, and manufacturing innovations too must be approached with an end state in mind. Also, he is a crotchety old man and no one else is agog.

"Although many people may not realize it, there's actual biological value in having experiences with nature, value that is measurable and quantifiable.(212)"

This quote was interesting to me because I had never thought of the benefits of experiencing nature as quantifiable. This quote also goes along with the theme of how technology has its drawbacks. The countless hours which our society now spends every day interacting with some form of technological device are in essence robbing us of time we could be outdoors bettering our physical and mental health. I'm not about to give up all ties to technology and live in the wild, but it is good to note the importance of nature.

"So try this: for a month next summer, or maybe just a week, or even a day-unplug. Put away all your electronic gizmos and go outside. Lie under a tree. Watch the clouds. Smell the air. Enjoy real life, rather than a virtual version' of it.
Most important, take the kids."

This is pretty sound advice for me. In fact, the entire article is really darn relevant to my experience. I'm an ultra-nerd, glued to my computer every day. A big portion of my happiness, I think like 80%, is derived from it. That's kind of scary how reliant I am on it to talk and play with friends. I'll definitely take the advice of the author, because breaking that addiction would probably be a lot healthier for me. I never realized how sensory deprived I was either. It seems to make a lot of sense now that I consider it. Pardon the pun.

"To try to tear ourselves from this biological fabric is not only futile, it's self-destructive. Rather than fighting our biological nature, we need to embrace the fact that most of who and what we are goes back not just a dozen years, but to the beginning of human history and, in some ways, to the beginning of life itself."

Although I consider myself a proponent of various kinds of environmentalist initiatives, Suzuki's writing embodies a prominent ideology in the ecological movement that I would like to very clearly distinguish myself from. At the heart of this ideology, there seems to exist the notion that the existing world possessed a perfect balance and sustainability that has been displaced by humanity's greed and exploitation of the environment. Given this premise, ecologists, like Suzuki, often advocate a reversion to a harmonious culture more in tune with nature. For me, the problem lies in this absolute idealization of nature as necessarily some sort of good that should be sought after. Instead of some natural standard for how the world should be, nature consists of a series of developments of which humanity is a part of. Simply, the nature that Suzuki seeks to return to, in its totality, is not some objective good but instead possesses aspects that sometimes are good for us, and sometimes not. Rather than a restoration of nature, I advocate that humanity seeks to better understand its relationship to nature and use technology and bio-genetics to work the environment to its highest potential in sustaining human life.

"We assume that technology will solve our problems.... Ultimately we're not electronic beings; we're biological ones. We have millions of years of evolution programmed into our cells, programming that's infinitely more complex than anything we've created with our shiny new and exciting technologies." (196)

Veering from the biological world, both our own and the one around us (looking past the city limits), and yet depending so much on technology for our very exisitence is a bit paradoxical, no? Suzuki mentions throughout the article that growing up, his ties with nature were great, yet he sees children now experiencing the complete opposite of what he lived as a child. At an increasingly younger age, the children of today are being exposed to our ever-present technological dependence and they will grow up knowing only this. The increasing dependency will lead the future generations to rely solely on technology to solve any calamity, when even we need to realized that the Earth/world we live on/in is indeed biological.

“Modern life is a communications paradox. We are in touch with each other as never before-cell phones, internet, text messaging, email. In fact, we now have to make an effort not to be in touch with other people” (p.203)

It's hard for most people to think about life without the technology we have today. Most students here are glued to their phone, go on their laptops every day, and I have yet to meet someone at UCSB who does not have a facebook account. However being able to communicate via technology has made most of us become more distanced from our friends and family than we realize. For example, instead of saying "happy birthday" to a friend, most of us will simply see the notification of a birthday on facebook then post it on their "wall". Conversely, I am grateful for the possibilities technology has given me. I was able to talk/ instant message with my boyfriend through his deployment in Afghanistan, and I have been able to keep in touch with my friends from high school who are now scattered throughout the country. Even most of my family is now using facebook (which is a little frightening). Yet, Suzuki makes a valid point when he states that visual stimuli are taking over. People need to realize that technology isn’t life. I have given up facebook for lent, and have found myself being more interactive with my friends than spending my nights on my computer. This made me realize that we are relying too heavily on technology in our modern era. We need to find a healthy balance between technology and the outside world so that our advances do not consume our everyday life.

"So in the world of insanely rapid obsolescence, not only does each companys' products have its own unique plugs and cords, each successive model is incompatible with the previous one it replaces"(211).
Suzuki makes a valid claim in saying that technology is taking over the lives of modern people and children, and also in saying how companies search more for products that will gain maximum profits rather than ones to benefit society. His example of the cell phone charger being incompatible with others reminded me of a time where I bought a new phone. I accidentally broke it, but then realized I still had the old one and tried to put the new memory (SIM) card into my old phone and use it; unfortunately, the new memory card didn't work in the old phone, even though it was the same brand and only two years older. Companies purposely create new incompatible products to increase revenue because it makes the consumer buy an array of products to upgrade rather than just one. It also makes the older products obsolete, which can be frustrating if all you need is a replacement. I have to agree with his overall arguments because I also believe that the new consumer society can be bad for our social and physical health.

“We tend to forget that the world we live in today – the electronic age – barely registers in the timeline of human history.”
Hardly will you hear someone contemplate just how bizarre our lives are these days by comparison to the lifestyles of our ancestors. Humans have been around for nearly 200,000 years, and for the majority of that time, we lived in much smaller societies while relying on hunting and gathering skills for subsistence. In this time, the world seemed like a much bigger place; most humans traveled by foot and communicated only by speaking. The amalgamation of knowledge and cultural forces that allowed for the evolution of more advanced technologies had not taken hold yet. I am astounded when I think about how we have started using so many new technologies in such little time. For so long our ancestors made stone tools, and fashioned useful products from nature. This was an essential element to survival and it was their culture. Nowadays, practically all of that knowledge has been lost (at least to the average person) and it has been replaced with the fast-chaging, innovation-driven consumer culture that has enthralled the world. Maybe the novelty (evolutionarily speaking) has got us hooked, but at the environmental cost, one must wonder, how will this culture be maintained for generations to come? When resources become scarce, will humanity once again be reduced to simple, subsistence based culture?

“We’ve tried to isolate the human experience from the rest of nature, but it’s an impossible task. Humans are a part of nature.” (p. 217)
I am sometimes amazed by how desperately humans often seem to attempt to separate ourselves from nature. I have heard so much how beastly and wild and bad the natural world is, and how only humans can rise above all of it. So, we build these massive grey cities and shut ourselves in them, surrounding ourselves with so much concrete and plastic and artificial lighting and becoming completely lost in our little digitized worlds. But the reason why we are able to think these thoughts and build these things is because nature made us having these really large brains. It is this that allows us to have the ability to create all this really amazing technology and all sorts of fictional worlds, and to be able to share and explore in our creations. Instead of using our incredibly powerful brains to slander everything else that exists in the natural world, we should use them to appreciate it. And ultimately, all that natural stuff is us. It is our home and all of its inhabitants are our neighbors. We could spare a little more time away from our monitors to explore this vast world already existing just beyond our doorsteps.

"Children of the 21st century are growing up in a world very different from the one I faced."

The fact that the author grew up in a different time period is the primary reason why it is difficult for him to accept the advancements of technology in today's culture. He regards today's hobbies as being "insidious" in nature and talks about how he would prefer playing in a swamp. Though I do agree with his view that there should be balance between physical and virtual interaction, I do not agree with his one-sided approach on technology. He fails to discuss the positive things that new technology advancements have provided for us "children of the 21st century". For example the medical industry and its "gadgets" save thousands of lives every year through cancer detection and drug solutions. And technology breakthroughs are not always brought into light because of environmental regulations needed to be fulfilled by industry leaders but also because of passion. Research scientists in academia devote their lives to figuring out the unknown because of their own curiosity and interest, and not just because some industry leader wanted them to. These breakthroughs found at research based institutions have had a great influence in the construction of the modern day, for example FACEBOOK which was originally created for students at Harvard.

"The relevance of day and night to mode rn society has
changed. Grocery stores, fast-food outlets, and even gyms
are open twenty-four hours" (202).

I think that this quote summarizes the bigest productivity enhancer of the industrial revolution. The invention of the light bulb has made the fact of whether it is day or night inadequate. Now we can see with brilliant clearness no matter what time of day it is. It makes the concept of daylight savings completely irrelevant, which was invented so that people could get more done with the available daylight. So in the consumer world, is there a better way to make more profit than to stay open longer? Lights enable us to stay up into the night and get things done that we didn't have time to do or didn't get around to doing in the time of daylight hours. They also enabled the construction of new kinds of buildings like skyscrapers and large, enclosed office buildings. There is now no more need for courtyards to let light in to the center of a building. Businesses can close their patrons off to the outside world and take the clocks off the walls so that they lose track of time and spend more money. These are all clever ways to use the resources given to us. And they are all proven strategies.

“Consider smell. Smell is one of our most powerful senses. It's directly connected to the part of our brain that processes memories and emotions. Yet most of us live and work in largely
sterile, odor-neutral buildings. Most of the odors we do smell indoors are overly perfumed commercial items like soaps and air fresheners. Outdoors, walking on our city streets, we shut out the noise and stink of automobiles so we can focus on where we're going.” (201)

I enjoyed the above excerpt because I really identified with what the author had to say. How many times have I walked around the streets of a city blocking out the odors in order to concentrate on my thoughts and yet, I never blocked out my vision. Why is that? Clearly, we place more value on visual stimuli in our society. And yet, when I visited my deceased dad’s old home, it was the smell that really got to me – that evoked the most nostalgia – not the site of the house. (although the combination is undoubtedly more powerful)
Another really interesting part about this paragraph is the factor of commercialized smell which the author evokes: all smells come from mass-products: perfumes, multinational restaurants (like Subway that inundate a 100 foot square area around the restaurant with their stench)… and even further, the author notes that we value the absence of smell – work buildings are, in general, “odor-neutral”. This must lead to the under-development of children’s sense of smell – cooped up in school all day and then driven home and kept within the safety of one’s home (and if the child is lucky, they have a garden to enjoy)
No longer do they have a swamp to go explore - children are rarely let out of their homes nowadays - at least alone - I guess the safer thing to do, is to play video games. (sarcasm intended)

"without perspective being constantly online and plugged in becomes the normal state of being" (195).
I thought this quote was interesting because I feel like college these days revolve around our advancements in technology. Having computers as well as the Internet have changed our ways of learning and how we do things.

"We've tried to isolate the human experience from the rest of nature, but it's an impossible task. ...Whether we like it or not, our bodies respond to changes in the natural world." (217)

This quote interests me, because I feel like it reflects the arrogance of human nature. Often times, we see humans as so different from other animals on this planet, yet we have numerous innate habits and rituals that it is difficult to make such a distinction. Going back to another Suzuki quote about the constant indoor Spring temperatures and 24-hour lighting (202), humans have developed technology to fight our "animalistic" habits, but going against the natural order of things at times seems only futile. It is much more difficult to swim upstream, than it is to swim downstream. Technology just makes us forget about what we can experience in the natural world. We always fight so hard for something better out there, that we cannot ever be happy with what we already have.

"the constant focus on technological distractions can distance us from our families, our communities, and the world around us." (195)

At the beginning of the article, this assertion caught my attention quite easily. The fact that I can very easily relate to this claim shows just how technology has invaded the lives of the younger generation. You can never go anywhere now without seeing at least one of your friends chugging away on their phones texting or playing games. The fact that people these days can almost never have a face to face conversation without the distraction of their device shows that technology is stealing us from personal relations with the physical people around us.

"Right now, they're starving, and that may not be good for our mental or physical health." (203).

The deprivation of our senses is a very important topic because our senses have been finely tuned by evolution for thousands of years. Our vision may be the most important sense because we use it in almost everything we do, but our other senses (the ones being deprived) also play important roles in our lives. For example, our sense of smell has evolved to tell us if something is good to eat or not. When you smell spoiled milk it might make you want to vomit, but that is a good thing. It is your body's natural reaction telling you that this is not a good thing to consume, and you may become ill if you do. Recently, people have stopped relying on these types of indicators, and have started relying on technology. In the case of milk, an expiration date printed on the bottle. One fear is that if some of our senses begin to deteriorate from underuse, we will no longer be equipped with some of these natural warning systems that help us survive.

"So, we can thank the engineers and scientists who did
the technical work. We can thank the leaders who had the
political courage to stand up to nay-saying industrial groups
and enact strong regulations. We can thank the health and
environmental organizations and the concerned citizens who
demanded government take action.
But thanking technology? Sorry, wrong hero." (198)

I found this section of text to be interesting because I both agree and disagree with what seems to be his main argument. America has always been based on some core values, one of them being progress and the betterment of our society. Technology is something that is intertwined with progress and success. Without technology, the advancements that we have made (making things faster/smaller/overall better) would not be possible. The engineers and scientists who did the technical work would not have been successful in meeting the regulations and standards that the population asked for. Technology is almost the root of all progress and successes that have taken place in the last 15 years. Without technology, the idea of a hybrid car would have been an outrageous task to complete. But because of the advancement of technology, combined with many other things, a hybrid car is something that is a reality and no longer a concept. Technology should be one of many heroes in this day and age.

“Today’s youth, especially in the big cities, often lead more isolated, insular lives and can be so far removed from the natural world that they can’t even identify the common plants and animals that live around them” (pg. 199)

I think this quote is important, I believe that children in America are losing their youth to technology. America is a very consumerist country; kids at a young age learn that they need to have the latest video game or computer program. I remember being excited to get out of school to go play outdoors with my neighbors. Recently kids just stay inside their homes to watch TV and play video games. I think this is one of the reasons that create problems like childhood obesity. Children are getting the idea that we need technology to survive because that’s all they know. I think it’s important for parents to teach their kids that technology is not a necessity. Even today not all technology is in reach of the whole world, so technology becomes necessity when we start depending on it, till then it remains luxury, parents need to teach that to their kids and show them how to enjoy nature because that is truly a human necessity.

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