Space Enough, and Time

It’s not that I have a problem with technology; my problem is with how we (don’t) think about how it affects the way our world actually works.  Part of this problem stems from my becoming an old codger.  Another part of it comes from interacting with people who don’t know a world without the internet.  But it’s what I’ve read over the last few years that has most informed my view on technology and its use of us.

So while I don’t plan on purchasing Apple’s new Watch when it releases, I do think it’s worth thinking about.  Two of my favorite authors have posted their thoughts about the tech, and their questions and concerns are good.

In his TIME magazine online piece, Nicholas Carr notes that Apple has a history of producing product that changes things, even if it starts out as nothing special.  Consider:

Apple has some experience in taking a lackluster new product and turning it into a must-have for the masses. When it released its iPod in 2001, there were already plenty of MP3 players on the market. None of them, though, had garnered much interest. The iPod, with its simple interface and copious capacity, broke the market open—and revolutionized the music business in the process. With the elegantly designed, eye-catching Apple Watch, the company is hoping to pull off a similar feat for wearables.

For Carr, though, that’s just the beginning of things.  The rest of his article focuses on things learned from the advent of the wristwatch.  It’s a good read that you can find here.

Another post worth considering is the list of questions raised by Seth Godin.  His post begins:

Watches and eyeglasses have morphed into devices that many choose to spend time and money on, becoming not just tools, but a form of identity.

We could extend this a bit to handbags and to cars, but the number of items that qualify as functional jewelry is fairly small–and the market for each is huge, far bigger than if the only use was as a tool.

Apple has long flirted around the edges of this psychological sweetspot, and the reaction to yesterday’s watch is fascinating to see.

From there, Godin asks four questions that connect to issues of fashion and identity.  You can read those four questions here.

Change, of course, is inevitable.  But we have been given the ability to reason, to think through, the potential benefits and costs of our decisions.  Even something as small as a wristwatch can have great effect.  That’s reason enough to watch the Watch.

I recently started following the blog of Rod Dreher, which is its own story (and one I will get to next week).  A few days ago he passed on the thoughts of Brian Kaller, who grew up “next door” to Ferguson and now lives out of the country.  An excerpt:

I live in rural Ireland these days, and can’t vouch for what’s happening on the ground in Ferguson right now; I’m reading the same Rashomon-style reports on the internet like everyone else. As someone who knows the neighborhood and the city, though, I can tell that pundits around the world, left and right, are seeing in this tragedy whatever they want to see. Black activists see police racism, libertarians see a failure of big government, liberals see a need for better social policies, law-and-order conservatives for more … you get the idea. Whoever you are, this tragedy just proves you were right all along. And when the violence in this St. Louis suburb dies down, Americans of all political stripes might walk away having learned all the wrong lessons.

What’s true of big-picture politics is probably true of small-picture politics.  It’s the result of the “opinionization” of contemporary culture.  Everything is a Rorshach test.  Sit in a meeting where decisions are made, listen to adults trying to interpret basic information.  Somehow, almost unnoticed, everyone’s pet peeve or pet project becomes suddenly relevant.  We say our part and pat ourselves on the back and move no closer to real resolution.

I’d like to think I’m above this kind of behavior, but I know that I’m not.  It’s hard not to when everything seems to be at stake all of the time.  What would a better way look like, and it existed, would we even be able to see it?

You can read the full essay here.  And you can read Rod Dreher’s gloss here.