More, Better, Faster - Living at Digital Hyperspeed

In his blog about the healthy home, David Boiller writes an entry entitled "More, Better, Faster - Living at Digital Hyperspeed." Essentially, it questions what is being sacrificed by the faced paced lifestyles that society tends to lead. A good majority of this entry details the views and research of David M. Levy on the subject of "No Time to Think", but Boiller adds weight to the subject by infusing his own opinions.

The first key point brought up in the article is that the technological devices that were intended to help everyone connect have in turn made us distant from other humans information. Boiller quotes Levy in saying, “We now have the most remarkable tools for teaching and learning the world has ever known. How is it that we have less time to think than ever before?” This claim is applicable in two situations. First on a person to information level and second on a person to person level. The former implies that technology has made us distant from pure knowledge and the latter implies that technology has had detrimental effects on the dynamic of relationships. This degradation of person to person interaction is blatantly obvious if one considers how facebook, twitter, and text messaging has caused a severe decline in face to face interaction.

The second key point in this article addresses the fact that humans no longer have time to stop and think because they are too bogged down with things that require urgent responses. In the words of the article, fast time activities have a tendency to trump things such as "reflection, play, and long term relationships." This idea transitions into the topic of how the world has become a place of 24/7 total work. These high speed labors have now completely replaced slow-time alternatives. Accordingly, people are having to find ways to cope with this lifestyle, one of which is the use of "neuro-enhancing drugs" such as Adderral. Both Levy and Boiler find the fact that people feel the need to use chemicals to enable to keep up truly disturbing. Not only are individuals depriving them of valuable activities such as time for reflections, but now they are actually artificially enhancing their body functions to increase efficiency even more. Boiler in the end asserts that these trends toward a high speed lifestyle are scaring, dangerous and need to be stopped, but he admits that making any sort of change "is going to be a formidable challenge indeed."

Similar to the Mander's article on a related topic, information revealed by Boiler and Levy is a little bit shocking/terrifying. The technologies that they reference and the lifestyle that they describe are things that I am very accustomed too. It makes me question whether my education is focused too much on efficiency and not enough on reflection, and it makes me question if my relationships are fake based on the fact that the majority of my communication with friends and family utilizes technology. The scariest part for me was the reference to "neuro enhancing drugs". Now by no means to I take Adderall or anything of that sort, but I do enhance my efficiency with unhealthy amounts of caffeine. The work load that I am responsible for would seem impossible if I was not artificially keeping myself awake.

One of the first things that popped into my head that I feel relates very closely to second key point of this article is the use of steroids in professional athletics. In similar terminology to that used in the article, steroids are referred to as "performance enhancing drugs" while misuse of medicines like Adderall is referred to by Mander as a "neuro-enhancing drugs". The reason that athletes do take steroids is to keep up with the competition. Their paychecks are contingent on the fact that they are in peak physical condition and compete at a level that is equal to or greater than that of their opponents. Meanwhile, business professionals and students use comparable drugs to give them a mental edge. Their paychecks are contingent on the fact that they are performing with efficiency that is equal to or grater than others vying for their positions in the company or class rank respectively. We heavily condemn athletes for these performance enhancers, and yet the neuro-enhancing black market remains seemingly untouched.

Essentially what the arguments in Mander's blog mean is that technology and the mindset of society as a whole have brought us into an age where there is no time for leisure. Now this is not the traditional use of the term leisure as the article mentions, such as "golfing or movie going", but leisure in this context simply means time for reflection, aimless thought, and deep contemplation. This type of leisure promotes creativity and pure wisdom, both of which are dwindling characteristics in society. If these things, and many more including our sanity, are to be preserved, society as a whole needs to work to not be consumed by technology, efficiency, and productivity. On an individual level, I intend to take the things I learned in this article and apply them to my life. For instance, I will make a conscious effort to emphasis face to face interaction with friends as opposed to textual conversations. I will also do my best to cut back on caffeine intake as a way to increase my productivity. I am not quite sure how I will get all of my work done without it, but I will have to try if I intend to stay creative, wise, and sane.

Here are my questions in regards to this article:

Have studies shown that those who take neuro-enhancing drugs without a prescription experience serious health issues?

What steps could be taken to help society relieve its dependence on technology without reverting back to the middle ages?

Is there a way we can use technology purely to our advantage? Can it further relationships, foster creativity, and increase wisdom?