Monday, June 15, 2009

Changing trends in technology

The world has come a long way. The humble beginnings of the ‘early’ man have given way to a modern, sophisticated and technologically advanced society. Today’s world is fast. In fact, ‘fast’ seems like an understatement. Technology, today is taking giant strides, whizzing past the laggards at dizzying speeds like a juggernaut not showing the slightest inclination to stop. It’s the age of snazzy mobile phones and PDA’s, cutting edge laptops, funky mp3 players, glitzy laser crystal displays and mind-boggling global positioning systems. Newer models and configurations are being launched at the drop of a hat.

Integration is in vogue, fuelled by the insatiable appetite to multitask. Everything, nowadays serves multiple functions. From headphones which measure your blood pressure to watches which double up as mp3 players and from sunglasses which can play videos to talking cars and t-shirts with temperature control, the list can go on…
There are some who claim to be addicted to these ‘marvels’, lapping them up as they make their way out from factories and warehouses while others brush them aside as unimportant, esoteric rubbish. Their argument? How many of these have actually lasted beyond the initial hype? Are these simply fancy names, then, which make for good reading?

There seems to have crept a certain sense of saturation into the technological arena. Most of the path-breaking discoveries and iconoclastic inventions took place in the 19th and the early 20th centuries. Since then, there has been a kind of a vacuum in that department. What we hear about today are just fatuous additions, subtle modifications and obvious improvisations. Once considered as a revolutionary concept, the car today is looked upon as an outcast in today’s society. CO emissions in large doses, generous contributions towards global warming and the inevitable traffic snarls haven’t really helped its cause. Governments are exhorting people to use public transport and to walk or cycle down short distances. Some go as far as to limit the number of cars per family. Now, owning just any car is no big deal but possessing a ‘hybrid’ version of a four-wheeler surely grabs a lot of eyeballs!

Mobile telephony was, I think, the most recent technological advancement which grabbed the people’s fantasy. Mobiles sold like hot cakes and they continue to do so. But, don’t we rely too much on our mobile-phones now? Haven’t we made them completely indispensable entities? Once a popular status symbol, it has now been reduced to a bare necessity. It is as if, your mobile number provides sole proof of your existence! Greetings, wishes and other formalities which would earlier be deemed complete only after a heartfelt conversation are now got over with cold SMSes while messages are conveyed with curt missed calls. The advancements in mobiles today, are all about higher resolution cameras and better multimedia sound quality which, really speaking has got nothing to do with the basic function of a phone!

The 20th century has been witness to the gradual change in the way people thought. That has translated into what we have invented , discovered and unearthed in our constant endeavour to progress. In the beginning, foundations were set, basics learnt and concepts established. Slowly, great scientists and researchers bore deep, unravelling fascinating mysteries about different aspects of science. Discoveries during this time revolutionised the world. They rewrote unwritten rules and redefined old paradigms. I think , they were simply waiting to be made. Necessity, not curiosity, was the father of invention then. Research was focussed on getting to know the subject better and gaining expertise. The bulb, the telephone and hundreds of other discoveries were, in a sense, serendipitous but they changed the way people thought.

But, slowly things have changed. Man has been there and done that. There is virtually nothing major left to discover. People are leading good lives with bulbs, mobiles, computers and ipods. The Moon has been conquered and nuclear energy harnessed. Now what? Has research stopped? No..certainly not. It has merely changed its nature. Research is now people-centric, aimed at making lives more comfortable and luxurious. Companies have virtually got into a rat-race in a bid to come up with products which appease the general masses. Suddenly, huge importance is being given to compactness. Smaller phones, sleeker laptops, faster computers.. all they have to do is to tweak their existing products here and there, reduce their size, give them a ‘feel-good’, contemporary look with a spanking new logo, throw in a few add-
ons and voila!..you get a ‘next generation’ product!

Today, every creation is aimed at erasing all efforts man has to make to eke out a living. ‘Manual’ is slowly being replaced by ‘Automatic'. Air-conditioners or stereo systems were great but people had to actually reach out to them to switch them on, so they came up with the idea of a remote control. This has now been extended to tube lights and fans also! It is this very relentless pursuit of appeasement that has led to the creation of frivolous and sometimes, purposeless products. One sometimes wonders whether all these have made life simpler or more complicated?
Well, love it or hate it, this trend is here to stay. It is thus, imperative that one is ‘in sync’ with the goings-on of today’s world to avoid being tagged as ‘ignorant’ or ‘backward’. So, pull your socks up and take stock!






2 comments:

  1. Interesting post, yes. Amazing vocabulary, needless to say. Some of the lines made my eyes pop out!

    But I'm still unable to quite figure out whether you, personally, are content with technology or not.
    If you ask me, I would say that the primary motive of science and technology has always been and will still be to make life simpler for commoners. The minds have worked for the bodies to relax. Let me take an example. Consider the example of washing machines. You save on time. You save on energy, hence your output at your workplace increases. So, it does not quite mean technology has complicated life. We aren't really scrutinizing the work behind these inventions, are we? We don't even need to. All we can do is invest in what technology offers us. And evidently, all of us are benefited by it, so why not wait and look forward to more such inventions?

    Well, I believe that there will be a day when we can fly.. not in airplanes or jets.. like birds, I mean. I hope I'll be alive, when that happens. :)

    Keep posting!

    ReplyDelete
  2. hi janani..thnks for sitting down and actually making an effort to read through it..and also thnks for ur compliments!
    as far as my view on technology is concerned,im very much for it..but i deliberately did not try to highlight my opinion in the article..dat was only to give it a more objective feel,and not a subjective one..the article is more about what is happening rather than what i would like to happen.
    Your views are correct..der is not doubt about it..but i still believe dat sum frivolous gadgets can be done away with..thnigs which serve no real purpose..for example,do u remember a 'roti-maker' was launched a few yrs back..did it work?apart from the initial hype,it was a total dud!
    Machines cant do EVERYTHING man does and all attempts to achieve this should be abolished!

    ReplyDelete