Where are we going?

Where are we going? Will the world be totally grey, made of steel and rocks, led by robots? Would not there be any beautiful, natural oasis, where to rest from the mechanical world? Will we eat modified food from tubes like astronauts were doing?

More and more similar questions come in my mind thinking of digital culture.

Actually, it does not mean that world should become extreme world of technology. Technologies are often the sign of development – we can produce things faster, easier, often in better quality. However, there is a dark side too again – people should learn how to work with these technologies and not always it is easy for them, technologies break down, they make mistakes and then there is no talk about qualitative products or faster work anymore.

One day I had to meet my friend in Riga who was hitchhiking from Vilnius. On that day I had forgotten to charge my phone and it was almost charged off when my friend should be in Riga. He managed to call me to say that the driver would not take him till the bus station where we arranged to meet and that he does not really know where is he and that he also does not have Latvian money to take a bus. When I began to ask questions what is around him, my phone charged off. I was desperate. I asked one guy to give me a call, but while the talk I just understood approximately where my friend is, but not how to get there. Afterwards, I found the right transport, went there, but I could not find my friend. It was long bridge where I was walking back and forth hoping to see him in some of the bus stops. No sign. It was already getting dark. There were few more people whom I asked to give a call, but not all of them understood the need of it. In the end I got a phone from one nice couple who also knew the names of the bus stops around the place. I found my friend after 1,5 hours of distraught walking on the one of the bridge access roads. This was the time when I valuated the power of technologies.

If I think about the future, present and past in everyday life, then yes, of course, I wouldn’t like to write essays by hand, I wouldn’t like to go to the post office and stand in the queue just to send a message that my friend can meet me next Monday at 11:00 next to the Monument of Freedom. However, now it is a bit terrible – I get up in the morning, awaken by alarm clock in my mobile phone, I push the “Turn on” button of my computer – even before making breakfast or having shower, I have 20 mails in my e-mail, half of them are advertisements and spams, what take my time to sign them as Spam, I call my mom through Skype, I chat with my friends on Facebook, I work using just a computer and internet and so on..

What about education? It is fantastic that we can study online and we can learn together with people all around a world. But what if children in schools will really have a need to have Ipad for studies, books will be something forgotten, children wouldn’t learn how to write, they would do more and more other things (surfing on internet, playing games etc) while they should listen to the teacher. Actually, similar talk was on news in Latvia before some time – one little Ipad would replace books thereby children shouldn’t bring 15kg to school and then back home. But they didn’t think about poor people, children activity, smashing or stealing cases etc.

Is it good or bad? Is it good that I can be wherever I want and I can work, chat and speak with my closest people whenever I want? Is it bad that everyone can follow me, seeing my IP address or coordinates? And where are our natural needs – being outside in the fresh air, being physically touched by other people, laugh together in real life, where are the beauty of nature? Is it all in the photos, videos and virtual connections? No, it’s outside!

I like the development of technologies while it doesn’t ruin our lives, while it helps us to live easier, and the main thing – while it doesn’t make us totally DULLS. Using technologies we should get smarter, we should know our past and understand the present. What do you think about the development of technologies and e-learning?