Technology Promised Ease. I’ll Take It!

I’ve spent the past week working on my wellness tech post, exploring whether it can actually improve our lives… or if it just adds to the relentless pace of on-all-the-time, tracking of everything, and notifications demanding instant attention.

I was the last generation to grow up without the internet. We got to set our own pace. To socialize, we got together. If you were there, you were there. If you were there, you were present. We weren’t worried our socializing would be broadcast to the world. We weren’t constantly taking photos of ourselves and our lives, or filming it for that matter. We didn’t always need to be on. We were hanging out, in the moment, together.

There was a built-in pace of life buffer back then. People called, they left a message, and we would call them back when we had a moment. People worked at their place of work, and then left it there when they went home. But life was about to get a blast of velocity.

With the entry of personal computers, the Information Age, smartphones, and now the Intelligence Age, life has become incredibly fast. It has brought so many wonderful gifts, one of my most cherished being the ease of keeping in touch with friends and family across the globe, in an instant, for free. There is so much ease and opportunity, having the world at our fingertips.

Everything is instant, anytime, anywhere. But sadly that means we are all expected to be available in an instant (anytime, anywhere) too — and be camera-ready too. My wellness technology and digital detox posts have sections on what to do if it all starts to feel like too much. In the context of wellness: Too much input for tracking. Too many distractions from notifications. Too much data to try to get perfect. Too many app streaks to maintain.

As I finished the post, I stepped back and thought: what if I allowed technology to do what it was supposed to do in the first place—make things faster and easier so our lives can be more fulfilled and relaxed?

I’m going to try it. I’ll let tech speed up—so I can slow down.