Fifteen years ago I wrote in this paper, that the “new telecommunication technologies will have a revolutionary impact on our lives, on the way we do things, on the way we think, on the way we relate to one another”. I was promoting a technology event, Yass Online 2D@y at the Memorial Hall. The Internet was so very new; mobile phones were large and limited in their usefulness; Twitter and Facebook, didn’t exist. I had thought it was important for everyone to understand what the new communication technologies were and how to use them.
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Over the last 15 years, digital technologies have changed. Where once I wrote about “going onto the web” our digital tools are now the web that binds us. Like a pair of shoes we wouldn’t think of going anywhere without our mobile phone. It connects us not just to friends and associates but to our social media platforms. Never before have we humans been so globally connected.
Only in the last few years are we becoming aware of the longer term effects of digital technologies on our physical, social and psychological lives. A young friend gave up reading paper books before she went to sleep; digital books were so much cheaper and easily available. She discovered over time that drifting off to sleep after an hour of peaceful reading was no longer happening. Instead she found she would stay awake for hours, and her eyes would eventually go a little nuts forcing her to put down the digital device. What little sleep she managed didn’t rejuvenate her. Over time she felt the impact on her work, social life and even mental health. On discovering research that showed how the light behind the screen of a smart device can affect the brain's ability to perceive the shift to night time and thus sleep time, she has reverted to reading paper books in bed.
Like any muscle, the brain requires exercise to function and improve those functions. What happens when we start to use outside sources to do all the heavy lifting? Do we make the effort to remember facts or figures rather than resort to an internet-connected device? Do we write a letter by hand or do we feel more comfortable typing it on a computer? Do we meet our friends for social outings or do we interface with them and the many others we are connected to via a device? Do we find it easier to play a game with ourselves or remotely connected individuals, rather than a physically present human being? Are we missing the body language of real time social interaction?
Listening to Baroness Susan Greenfield on the ABC’s Q&A program last week, made me pause and think about these so