Phones and Fire

Albert Einstein once said, “It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.”  However, the ability to use our brains to invent new technologies is what separates humans from other animals and has allowed us to control our surrounding environment.    In other words, without our capabilities to develop and advance technology, the human race would not be able to prosper.  The incredible technological revolutions made today affect society in very similar ways as the simple ones that enabled humans to survive hundreds of thousands of years ago. While technology is invented with good intentions in mind, eventually people are able to manipulate the technology causing great negative effects in society.

One of the very first and most important inventions of the human race was making fire.  This invention, believed to have been first created 1.8 million years ago, is still used today to keep homes warm in the winter, provide light, and even entertainment.  Although this invention is seen as common and unspectacular today, fire allowed people for hundreds of thousands of years to cook food and stay warm, providing humans an advantage over other animals enabling them to survive.  However, even this critical invention was corrupted and used in ways such as in warfare to kill enemies, and to burn homes and towns.  Thus, even in the very preliminary stages of human advancement, inventions have been manipulated from their original forms bringing negative consequences. Technology is typically invented and initially used with good intentions to advance humanity, only later to be manipulated for dangerous practices.  This trend can especially be seen in today’s unprecedented rapid advancements.

Today, cell phones play a key role in the way many people interact.  However, with this increased interaction also comes increased isolation.  Modern day cell phones were invented in order to increase communication among people.  Through smartphone apps such as facebook, lost friends are able reconnect, pictures are constantly shared, and communication is greatly facilitated. With the most basic of cell phones; parents can reach their kids no matter where they are by just pressing a button, and friends can communicate long messages in a matter of seconds.  All these inventions greatly facilitate the communication between people and have changed the way people interact.  However, the rise in use of cell phones has also accompanied negative consequences.  Explicit consequences can be exemplified by people using social media to stalk others, and even to post threats.  While these threats are rare, they do happen.  More commonly, people are impacted by the implicit consequences of living in a society where people have begun to use their phones for anything and everything.

Social media and text messaging have effectively changed the way modern day society communicates.  Clive Thompson claims that kids increasingly resort to social media for interaction with their peers because parents do not allow their the same freedom as children of previous generations.  Although kids do try to interact with each other as much as possible, what Clive Thompson fails to realize is that the increased interaction with friends online or through text messaging is taking kids away from the present moment and the people around them.  Furthermore, this epidemic is not limited to kids; it affects everyone using phones.  People no longer have to interact with their family when at home; they can sit on their phones and talk with any of their friends instead.  Any time spent with the family can immediately become talking to friends by looking at phones.  Furthermore, even when with friends, people are constantly checking their phones for text messages and other notifications.  Thus, people are not just addicted to talking to each other since they are still checking their phone when with friends.  Rather, people are addicted to technology. Society is increasingly being taken away from the surrounding world, and into a virtual world looking for any and every means of communication.

Just like with the invention of fire, phones have changed our lives forever.  The simple invention of a mobile device for people to communicate has also caused a great shift in the interactions of humanity.  As the invention of fire is today seen as a normal part of humanity, the trend of people interacting on their phones is already a very common site.  Wherever one looks, someone is bound to be on his or her phone communicating with another person.  This is because all areas of society use phones.  Whether for work or pleasure, phones are an integral part of the world today, and we must take the benefits of easier communication along with the consequences of increased isolation from the world surrounding us.