Sat, 15 Aug 2009

Trust in Technology

I went walking today, as I do almost daily. As I was walking out of a particular establishment, I approached an automatic sliding door and it didn't slide until the last minute. I had to slow down and might have run into the door had I been paying no attention to what I was doing.

This got me to think about our trust in technology. We are raising an entire generation of people for which technology is second nature. We trust that when we throw a switch, click a mouse, push a button, that things are going to happen as we espect them to.

What would it be like if you couldn't depend on those sorts of things and what if that trust in technology, especially technology like the Internet, is misplaced?

We pick up the phone, text someone half a continent away, write an e-mail to someone on the other side of the world and expect that the communication will go through almost instantly.

We order something online while sitting in our living room through the WiFi and trust that the product we have order will be delivered, often within 24 hours. Or even better that we can order on the Internet and drive down to our local brick and mortar store and pick up the product in 24 minutes.

We think nothing of playing a video game with, perhaps, thousands of people around the world.

We send our images to You Tube, Facebook, My Space and trust that they will not be misused and that only those people who we want to contact us will do so.

It's interesting how little thought we give to all technology. We use it with complete abandon and without thinking of wether it will work, not to mention how it works. Next time you use technology . . . wonder.

posted 12:26 [/bloids] permanent link