I have been spending a lot of time thinking about my relationship with technology. By this, I specifically mean the devices we are constantly staring at and what I am currently writing this on. I have become more and more disenfranchised by how technology has captured our collective attention and driven a wedge between human relationships. I let this affect how I view technology and have grown to have a love-hate relationship with the technology in my use. There are many upsides which I benefit from and this dichotomy feels very unsettling.
In reading Noah Smith’s Thoughts on Techno Optimism, I am reminded that though I don’t worship at the alter of a technological future, I do regard all of the technology we have built as a valuable tool at our disposal. A choice for us to make. Just as when we must go to the store to get food so that we can feed our family, I have the choice of walking, biking, driving, or even calling up an Uber. These are all choices that have improved my ability to live my life. I believe I have been thinking about this problem all wrong. I do not need to shun technology and rally against it. I need to reframe the technology as the tool it is. Technology does not define me. It is an extension of me. A tool I use. I think this is our legacy as a species, our evolutionary trait is the use of tools.