Does Tech Interfere In Our Daily Life 🤨

Rag_793
Rag_793 Community Member Posts: 801 Empowering
in Everyday life

I am someone that has always been a fan of tech for as long as I can remember, but the advancements in tech over the last 25 years alone has been astronomical. 🤯

I have each time my phone has been up for renwal, had the latest phone to benefit my daily life. But then on the other side it can have a negative impact, in that it leads to you relying on it like a luxurious a crux.

Sometimes you can spend over seven hours a day, multi tasking on a concoction of emails, social media, You Tube, internet and gaming. I mean you can fall into a trap of doom scrolling on endless loop of short clips on You Tube. A problem I have found is that you can lose the track of time as your on an endless dooms scroll hell loop. I also thing the endless tapping on my phone has led to me having issues in my left hand.

Another way that I personally have found an issue with tech is a smart watch, In 2017 I joined the Walk 1000 Miles Challenge and went down the rabbit hole of smart watches. From 2017-2023 I had a few devices such as Garmin and Fit Bit, but the main reason I wanted one was to keep a track of my steps, miles and route while hiking. But the negative side of that was I had to stop hiking in 2018 due to a thigh injury. I then ditched a smart watch and went back to an analogue watch, which lasted for a few years.

I then had a major health scare which saw me reevaluate the aspect I looked on my personal view to a smart watch. I came out of hospital and ordered an Apple Smart watch as it would work seamlessly with my iPhone. Between 2023-2026 I have only had two Apple Watches which I can’t find fault with. The fault lies in myself falling into a trap of becoming far too fixated on keeping a track of my meds, heart rate, 02 Sats and worse of all my sleep pattern. In a way it does play into the mental health, you become so fixated and blinkered that you cannot see the wood for the trees.

Another issue I have found with a wearable is that if you leave it on too long it can leave a mark on your wrist, alongside if you wear a silicone or rubber band it can lead to skin irritation.

I have now after months of thinking decided that it is best to become a theodolite again and go back to an analogue watch. I have also decided to order a whoop band that has no screen to distract me and won’t impinge on my daily living.

Another trap I have fallen into is with me having an iPad is that it is too easy when I go to bed at night, is that I will just sit there watching tv or you tube. It can also explain why when my mental health crashes that I don’t leave my bed for days and just have the iPad on. My iPad will be heading off later this month, in its place I have ordered a Mac Book to help me manage a lot of tasks and keep on top of bills and such like. With me switching to a Mac Book I am going to switch my banking and utilities over from my iPhone.

I guess I am going on a kind of digital detox, I am 43 but my scales say that I am 47. I need to start exercising more, alongside living life again by visiting museums, concerts, theatres, cinemas etc I also want to have my nose stuck in a book, rather than on my mobile phone all the time. I am also going to start picking up Lego again as I find it to be relaxing with my mental health. I also want to return my mind and body back to Buddhism ☸️ meditating each day to find a semblance of peace

I also want to avoid the ever increasing threat from AI

What are people’s own thoughts, experiences and opinions on tech?

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Comments

  • CarNineSix
    CarNineSix Community Member Posts: 102 Empowering

    Hello,

    Good tech used for good = good.

    Bad tech used for good = good.

    Good tech used for bad = bad.

    Bad tech used for bad = bad.

    Most of the time it is the person using the tech that decides if it is good or bad.

    The main problem is people not knowing or understanding tech, also tech designed for profit not for the people that need it.

    Tech should help if you want or need it and the best example for me is a car. Sometimes I walk . . . . yes even having the tech I by pass it and just walk sometimes

  • WhatThe
    WhatThe Community Member, Scope Member Posts: 6,378 Championing

    Does Tech Interfere In Our Daily Life

    I was one of the last people in Britain to use a dumb phone and the internet (can't use a smart phone). My laptop is mostly shut and my phone stays here when I go out. I'd rather relax with puzzles - nobody to play games with - or be outdoors in green spaces exercising my eyes instead of squinting at a screen.

    If I spend too long online, I actually become nauseous then I know it's time to stop. When I'm deeply depressed, it's a great distraction but can feel like a compulsion so I dislike that aspect of tech.

  • ambiguous
    ambiguous Community Member Posts: 1 Listener

    I would agree that tech can have an intrusive and negative effect on people's lives, and I mean that in the literal sense; as it it takes away from our lives more than it adds at times.

    I notice it more in other people, and the loss of social skills people I cross paths with now seem to have lost. I watched this evening when going to pay for my food at a supermarket, only the self service tills were open, that isn't the issue. The problems were walking around the shop and people either driving the trolley with their elbows, hunched over and eyes to the ground or to their phone screen (can someone explain to me why anyone without limitations prefers the hunched over drive-with-your-elbows option rather than standing upright and driving the trolley with your hands?!)

    This evening however, one guy in the queue behind me had spotted a till being free and went to walk toward it, only he couldn't. My trolley was as close to the till as I could get it, another couple were scanning their items and their trolley presented a barrier.

    Rather than ask them politely to please move their trolly out of his way, he simply stared, and stared and then shoved at his trolley towards the trolley ahead of him. No "can you please move your trolley" or even a subtle cough. It wasn't as if the guy could not speak- I'd witnessed him only minutes earlier ending a phone call ~(yes on speakerphone!) before getting on with his shopping. It was as if this guy- not a young man I hate to add, had not retained the social skills to know to ask someone politely to move! I had to ask on his behalf, the couple jumped into action and did move, little effort required. I do not understand why it was virtually impossible for him to ask!

    And the speakerphone is further evidence; people just don't care anymore about how their behaviour affects anyone else- and some will become aggressive if they are approached. It's as if the bullies in the playground never grew up and thought they'd continue to dominate the room wherever they ended up. I'm not sure how much of their behavior is down to ignorance and how much of it is down to needing some sort of power trip to make up for an otherwise small and powerless life, neither should be anyone else's problem though.

    I could go on at length here; the Lime Bikes we see thrown around pavements, preventing anyone in a wheelchair, anyone with a walking stick or blind stick, anyone with a buggy- even those with a blind dog! Cannot get past. Those who add to the pile of bikes either don't think or just don't care, it's someone else who will be the one they see as the problem but not themselves. It's almost as if they think they can just pretend they didn't exist or have any inclusion on this if they just follow the heard and that there will be someone else who picks up the tab. I worry that just like the online world, there are no consequences or repercussions, no one can or will challenge and so the behaviour continues, actions spread to others who follow along and nothing ever changes.

    I do think this is at least fed by those who exist mostly online through social media and everything else, people of all ages- I'm not using those who are young in my experiences (above) these are all things I have witnessed being done by those who are at least middle aged if not somewhat older (yes I include the dumping of Lime bikes to that!) It's people who I think become so absorbed in their own ego, they don't feel the desire to be reflective of their actions and behaviours- why care when the only one you really care about, is yourself?

    I don't know how all this ends- and I've not even gotten on to the endless hours I know people lose to the internet (and arguably a lot of that on the echo-chambre that is social media) this is just on the consequences to society in general. The only way any of that ends is if people are motivated to change, but in a world online that seems to fuel narcissism, it's a strong person who walks away from the me-me-me vibes they exist in and starts to give any of that up for anyone else, least of all a stranger. Back in the day before social media existed I don't think this was such a question, but it is now and I don't know how or even if it changes. Thanks internet!

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