Technology Traps

I have a love/hate rela­tion­ship with tech­nol­ogy, much of my tur­moil stems from the fact that I do not always have the lux­ury of say­ing no or even, let me think about it, before it becomes a tech­nol­ogy I depend on. This is a symp­tom of what Peter Crabb calls tech­no­log­i­cal traps, con­se­quences of every­day deci­sions to use tech­no­log­i­cal devices that make us feel good when in fact these devices are not good for us or the planet at all:

With the help of human enthu­si­asts and enablers, tech­nol­ogy cre­ates its own self-affirming ide­ol­ogy. It is widely believed that tech­nol­ogy is infal­li­ble. Tech­nol­ogy must not be ques­tioned or crit­i­cized. Human needs are sub­or­di­nate to the needs of devices and sys­tems. If some­thing goes wrong, it must be due to “human error.” The solu­tion to technology-induced prob­lems is always more and bet­ter tech­nol­ogy. In fact, every arena of human activ­ity is always improved when the lat­est, most com­plex tech­nolo­gies are applied. As a con­se­quence of the ascen­dancy of tech­nol­ogy, humans have become demeaned and pow­er­less – second-class cit­i­zens in their own societies.