Turns out it’s National Technology Day!📲I doubt you knew, it’s always the National day of something or other. A quick google search and I found that apparently it’s also national bean day… and national shortbread day??? Who decides this stuff? A blessing for food companies though, national days I expect drive up sales. Because when is there a better time to buy shortbread, than on national shortbread day? *spoiler*- it doesn’t improve taste or quality of the shortbread. You feel like your part of something though- definitely just a psychological pleasure there.
Enough about beans, and more of ‘where have I been?’. It’s been a while since I’ve sat and wrote a blog post. Can I get away with saying that less is more in this case? Ideas come to me sporadically, and motivation is a wave that surges over me at random times (it’s 4.30 as I lie here typing this out- and no the sun isn’t setting, it soon will be rising)- ooops..
As you read this though (if you’re reading on January 6th 2019), then as mentioned it’s national technology day. Technology users are all tainted unfortunately with the same brush as being ‘lazy’. Mostly it’s sadly us youngsters who get this kind of gripe.
Advancements (which I can’t deny are exciting!) are bringing us voice controlled technology known as ‘smart speakers’ (think Echo Dot & Google Home). From what I’ve seen of this technology in action, I feel these are causing many to have an excessive reliance on tech and to be honest it’s becoming quite sad, even comedic. So to an extent I’m agreeing with some of the ‘lazy’ backlash.
As an initial thought, they are pricy little pieces of tech. I’ve seen some priced at £140 upwards, and by the time you’ve faffed buying add-ons such as the compatible lightbulbs- the money spent seems extortionate and a waste.
Although I don’t own a google home or echo dot, I can get a wholesome idea from advertising and research. The services I usually hear of include;
-forecasting weather
-telling the time
-making a shopping list
-switching off lights
-defining words
-calendar features
I don’t want to move into a rant-like tone and explain why I think all of these features are worthless but I will just say that they are all… well, worthless. To remember birthdays, write them into a calendar, hang it up and you’re set. If you choose to rely on good old Alexa, then you must spend £100+, set up the speaker, add all the birthdays in digitally, and then, what? -ask the speaker each day if it’s anyone’s birthday. By that point it would be too late anyway!
If you’re affording an amazon echo, then you likely possess a decent phone. The services offered by the speakers seem to overlap with a lot of what you can get from using Siri or voice control on your mobile too. Again making this seem an unnecessary purchase.
All of this has led me to believe that people own these for fun, more-so than for the actual convenience of having a recipe or the time read aloud.
I think largely it the novelty here, of talking to a ‘robot’ and the ease of getting information at speed. This, and a mixture of FOMO, and giving into hypes and trends is what makes people want these products. In turn though, this is causing for lazy behaviour and an objection to completing simple tasks independently. An ‘Alexa can do it and Alexa will know attitude’ has formed in a lot of households. Or maybe, you’re a just a shameless technology nerd- in which case then happy technology day to you!
Whilst this technology admittedly IS super clever- we are even cleverer. I just feel everyone needs to rewind a little and remember that we can complete many tasks for ourselves, and find things out through experiencing, researching and talking with real people.
Do you own a smart speaker? It surprises me that many people are giving in and buying these creepy robots, have you ever experienced anything weird with your own?
Emma
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Emma in Essence 