Final Post

 Final Post: Is my relationship with technology healthy? Nope. Neither is yours.

    To put it plain and simple, I don't think that anyone's truly is. Historically speaking, humans rely on tools as a means to further society however the internet and modern technology have become more of a lifestyle than anything. Especially in Generation Z, people utilize tech as a means of life. I can't go anywhere without my phone, I need my laptop to do the most basic work or assigned tasks, and I don't rent books from libraries I read text online. I don't necessarily think I am an outlier here in that I know for a fact there are so many more that utilize technology in much higher quantities than I. As a child, video games and the internet were just things to do on rainy days. I would be outside frolicking like any other kiddo but somewhere along the way, my perception of free time was skewed to strictly involve television, internet, iPhones, social media apps, games. While this is merely a complaint of the times, the likelihood of it getting any better is abysmal. My life is now online, during the pandemic school/work was streamed through video conferencing. Now? Pretty much nothing has changed except we speak in person. Technological reliance is at an all time high and I am far from the exception. I would love to sit here and type about how good I am at staying off of my phone but to be quite frank, there is no reason for me to lie. I use it so much everyday especially when I am simply bored. I look at my friends and my family and I am not the worst at usage but I'm definitely not the best.

    My family uses every aspect of the internet and have been absolutely infatuated with the concept of streaming since its public conception. Does this environment make for a socially normative human who thrives in extraverted circumstance? I would say yes honestly, if I had my choice between FaceTime or just spending time with someone, you get so much more out of an in person interaction. While many will argue it's the same thing, it just isn't. Humans are social animals at our biological baselines and to take that away through a medium does create a sense of absence. I think that our family has thrived because we are such proponents for tech all the while retaining the naturalist mentality that we could do it in person why do it over a phone. All in all, I didn't turn out objectively awkward... at least I hope not? Stating one isn't weird doesn't really make a great argument for technological causation though. I utilize it far more for a social experience than I do entertainment. I would rather speak to friends than play Candy Crush. Does it happen while I'm waiting to board an airplane? Of course. Am I spending my Friday nights on it? No. Technology is both man's greatest weapon and opponent. 

    Learning about AI was kind of scary in a sense. Besides the material provided through the course I think I remember reading or hearing about an AI from a rather large tech company that said it could think in every way humanity could except when thinking about loss or grief. I don't know about you but when I think of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison's electrical ingenuities I highly doubt they thought we would create apathetic robots just because we could. Our nation's and our world's relationship with technology is so geared towards progress that we aren't stopping to take note of our nature. Of course we can invent. Of course we can innovate. But at what cost? At what point do we collectively as not a nation but as a species say, "okay we're good"? When do we the people go back to just we the people? Why are we attempting to craft something that competes with our very existence aside from aiding us? There is no sense of urgency of course but there should be a sense of satisfaction rather than obsessive innovation. I am not an anti-innovation person but I don't think we really need to entertain the idea of implementing high levels of artificial intelligence all around the world out of convenience for the minority. The world's relationship with technology has shifted from usage, to reliance, to now entitlement, to next......