What does it mean to be human in the year 2013 Are We Becoming Cyborgs - Essay Example

Limiting the Use of Technology is Actually Better It would seem to be a strange preposition if I would say that we should limit our consumption and dependency towards technology. This may sound preposterous as this would seem to look as if I am advocating backwardness and denial of technology or even a manifestation of technophobia. Even perhaps, that I may sound like I do not understand technology. On the contrary, I have a complete grasp of technology enough for me to conclude that it is no longer serving its purpose and therefore, its use should be limited.

Technology’s main function is supposed to make our lives easier. Information technology is supposed to enrich our lives considering the enormous amount of information it can store, process and regurgitate. Yet despite this capacity, information technology has defeated its very purpose because it in fact is displacing relationships or replaces meaningful human interactions as Popoya worries in the article Are We Becoming Cyborgs? We are now at a point where computational algorithm is replacing handshakes and hugs where mechanical operation becomes the only measure of intelligence.

This being the case, strips the meaning of other endeavors that feeds the soul such is why we have to limit our dependency to technology so as not to feed the system that kills our soul as human beings. Bill Mckibben already put the blame on the advances of technology why some social relationships disintegrated. He vividly recalled the time when the most common form of recreation was visiting each other’s house but the practice was “killed” when television was introduced as it confined people in their homes.

I am not saying that we should totally abandon technology or totally deny the whole idea of technology as bad. No, technology has been good to us only that we came to a point where its advances have distorted our sense of being not only as we relate to ourselves but also to other people. Its use has to be mitigated now because technology has already approached a stage where it became destructive. It may be argued that why limit technology now when it is only recent that technology has budded.

To answer, I would use Morozov’s argument that we have been using technology since. Anything that extends our human capacity is in fact technology and it would be false that it is only recent that technology has advanced. Rather, it is only recent that technology has become disruptive as Greenfield in the New York article have cautioned. The number of hours we spend on social networking and video games is already replacing personal and thoughtful effort of enriching relationships with family and friends.

In turn, this world is becoming impersonal and to some extent, cold. But I will not go far nor become too alarmist such as McKibben in his essay The Posthuman Condition when he cited his anxiety about the backlash of technology such as the advances in genetic engineering will deprive us of our chance to discover ourselves and be what we want to be as technology has predetermined everything. And in effect, this has deprived us the chance to become what we really are. The jogging metaphor adequately portrayed this that the seeming limitation of the body affords the opportunity to know one’s limit and ability to push himself or herself harder.

If the body is altered by genetic manipulation, this privilege will be permanently deprived. The recent development in technology be it in information technology or genetic engineering is not necessarily bad. What makes it bad is our dependency towards it to the point that it defeats its purpose that what was achieved is not its intend purpose. To elaborate, we can cite the famous social networking site Facebook. Facebook’s original purpose and intent was supposed to connect people and enrich our social lives when it was envisaged in the dorm room by its founder Mark Zuckerberg.

What happened recently instead, is we overused Facebook to the point that we spend so much time on it that we no longer go out to make real friends. We became addicted to virtual friends and replaced the warmth of meaningful relationships with a relationship that we can control in social networking site. Instead of social networking site complementing our lives to enrich it, it took a life of its own and took over our real lives. Thus, it did not enrich our lives as it was intended to be but rather made it cold and impersonal.

I suggest that perhaps if we will only step back a little and lessen our dependency towards technology, technology will serve its intended purpose and can in fact be really good for us. And the advances and prosperity that accompanies it will not necessarily be destructive such as what TV did to the practice of house visitation. The algorithm that goes with information technology does not have to take over our lives and digitize it as well. Advances in genetic engineering do not have to rob us of our person by altering our physique and meddle with cognitive capacity.

Rather, to serve its true purpose of finding better ways to live healthier, longer and stronger without the necessity of altering us. If this will materialize, the social dysfunction that was defined by Kibben nor the admonishment of Greenfield and Popova does not have to happen. There would be no holes that we have to fill in due to the emptiness that the overuse of technology has brought to us. Perhaps when this happens, our consumerist tendency will lessen as there will be no more emptiness that we have to cover by indulging and purchase.

And that the movie Seinfeld which McKibben uses frequently as his metaphor for the seeming meaningless of life would become irrelevant. And all it takes if for us to step back and limit our dependency towards technology. Because if we will indeed step back a little, technology will remain for what they are – machines which are implements to make our lives easier or know how that makes our lives better. And all it takes is just for us to step back a little and do more for ourselves and other people.

Works Cited McKibben, Bill. “The Posthuman Condition.” from Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age. Harper’s Magazine, April 2003: 15-19. Schmemann, Serge. “Are We Becoming Cyborgs?” New York Times 30 Nov. 2012. Web. 30 Dec. 2012. [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/30/opinion/global/maria-popova-evgeny-morozov-susan-greenfield-are-we-becoming-cyborgs.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0]