Awesome stuff – I have been contemplating this subject a lot recently (i.e., the expanding presence of tech or tech-induced information on human mindshare). It’s impossible to look around at a restaurant without seeing most individuals engaged equally with their smartphones as with their friends and family.
I think a nuance is that not only has technology & its ability to do more work for humans accelerated on the basis of “Y output for X time/resources input”, where X output is increasing exponentially all else equal due to its progress… but also that humans have been putting incredibly more of “X” in to the equation as the function simultaneously gets more efficient. For example, instead of X = Y, we now get Y = x^2, ad infinitum for certain things.
Its tough to delineate the impact of each (efficiency vs. total inputs), but I would not be surprised if in the next ten or twenty years or so that the time invested in utilizing technology actually reaches a local maximum in the lifespan of many individuals. I believe this is possible/probable because of a few things:
A. There are diminishing or even negative returns to happiness for the increase of the output “Y” that we receive. For example, in our personal lives, we can examine one’s use of Facebook as it has evolved over time. X = hours spent on the platform & Y = facts/data learned. There is another function based on Y that produces f(Y) or “Z” of happiness. Beyond some amount of facts/data learned, we stop receiving benefit & actually decrease our happiness., i.e., there is a rationally “optimal” amount of facts/data learned or encountered if our goal is to be happy. As f(X) has gotten more efficient (facebook can show us/cycle us many more facts and data points), many have not appropriately countered by reducing X & if anything have increased it.
B. It takes time to apply rationality & regulation (by ourselves and by our institutions) to new phenomenon. Culture is like a big ship – it shifts and changes direction quite slowly. An example of this is in how we’ve had to adjust our approach to the operability of automotive over time. We added stop signs & traffic lights, as well as mandates for seat belts & sober driving, because ultimately, those led to better human experience for everyone involved. Safety belt use was 11% in 1980 but is 91% today. It is quite literally a restraint that we impose on ourselves, because we know that it is effective for us (and is the law). I would not be surprised if we . The iPhone has only been around for 15 years, mind you, and so it will take us time to make sense of how we use this technology rationally, i.e., in a way that increases our happiness, instead of our stress and anxiety levels.
C. The American culture of our day is one that prioritizes excess & abundance of consumption. There is the possibility for a shift in the prioritization of human happiness/flourishing from one of aggregate consumption. I feel this will define whether America can be successful or not in the future, i.e., can we appropriately manage ourselves in an era of such great abundance? I hope so.
D. Generations define their own culture and how they engage with the challenges of the day. For example, if you look at my parents generation, Gen X, you’ll find individuals who are hyper independent because in childhood they were molded by an era that was little concerned with collective welfare of children, evidenced culturally by divorce rates and institutionally by undesired wars. I would not be the least bit surprised if the children of younger Millennials and older Gen Zs actually reject forms of technology, or at the very least, living the majority of one’s life through a device versus in the physical world. Those youth will likely witness relationships & psyches heavily strained by the over-adoption of technology and could desire a better way – learning through the experience of their parents, whom themselves were engaging with truly novel and life-changing technological adoption by way of the mobile phone.
I’m hopeful that we’ll find a way culturally & individually to regulate ourselves to use technology for the better and in a way that promotes better human flourishing. Time will tell & culturally our character will show.
Awesome stuff – I have been contemplating this subject a lot recently (i.e., the expanding presence of tech or tech-induced information on human mindshare). It’s impossible to look around at a restaurant without seeing most individuals engaged equally with their smartphones as with their friends and family.
I think a nuance is that not only has technology & its ability to do more work for humans accelerated on the basis of “Y output for X time/resources input”, where X output is increasing exponentially all else equal due to its progress… but also that humans have been putting incredibly more of “X” in to the equation as the function simultaneously gets more efficient. For example, instead of X = Y, we now get Y = x^2, ad infinitum for certain things.
Its tough to delineate the impact of each (efficiency vs. total inputs), but I would not be surprised if in the next ten or twenty years or so that the time invested in utilizing technology actually reaches a local maximum in the lifespan of many individuals. I believe this is possible/probable because of a few things:
A. There are diminishing or even negative returns to happiness for the increase of the output “Y” that we receive. For example, in our personal lives, we can examine one’s use of Facebook as it has evolved over time. X = hours spent on the platform & Y = facts/data learned. There is another function based on Y that produces f(Y) or “Z” of happiness. Beyond some amount of facts/data learned, we stop receiving benefit & actually decrease our happiness., i.e., there is a rationally “optimal” amount of facts/data learned or encountered if our goal is to be happy. As f(X) has gotten more efficient (facebook can show us/cycle us many more facts and data points), many have not appropriately countered by reducing X & if anything have increased it.
B. It takes time to apply rationality & regulation (by ourselves and by our institutions) to new phenomenon. Culture is like a big ship – it shifts and changes direction quite slowly. An example of this is in how we’ve had to adjust our approach to the operability of automotive over time. We added stop signs & traffic lights, as well as mandates for seat belts & sober driving, because ultimately, those led to better human experience for everyone involved. Safety belt use was 11% in 1980 but is 91% today. It is quite literally a restraint that we impose on ourselves, because we know that it is effective for us (and is the law). I would not be surprised if we . The iPhone has only been around for 15 years, mind you, and so it will take us time to make sense of how we use this technology rationally, i.e., in a way that increases our happiness, instead of our stress and anxiety levels.
C. The American culture of our day is one that prioritizes excess & abundance of consumption. There is the possibility for a shift in the prioritization of human happiness/flourishing from one of aggregate consumption. I feel this will define whether America can be successful or not in the future, i.e., can we appropriately manage ourselves in an era of such great abundance? I hope so.
D. Generations define their own culture and how they engage with the challenges of the day. For example, if you look at my parents generation, Gen X, you’ll find individuals who are hyper independent because in childhood they were molded by an era that was little concerned with collective welfare of children, evidenced culturally by divorce rates and institutionally by undesired wars. I would not be the least bit surprised if the children of younger Millennials and older Gen Zs actually reject forms of technology, or at the very least, living the majority of one’s life through a device versus in the physical world. Those youth will likely witness relationships & psyches heavily strained by the over-adoption of technology and could desire a better way – learning through the experience of their parents, whom themselves were engaging with truly novel and life-changing technological adoption by way of the mobile phone.
I’m hopeful that we’ll find a way culturally & individually to regulate ourselves to use technology for the better and in a way that promotes better human flourishing. Time will tell & culturally our character will show.