I was talking to a vendor at my job the other day when he mentioned to take a look at AT&T's 1993 advertisement "You Will." As soon as we stopped talking, I went back to my desk and completely immersed myself back in my work.
It wasn't until I was on the train that I realized I hadn't looked at the ad yet. I excitedly went to YouTube on my phone and watched as series of events in the advertisement mimicked much of what has happened the (almost) 2 decades.
Take a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZb0avfQme8
It's remarkable just how much AT&T predicted back then. I look back at those advertisements and realize how far technology has really come. If we're halfway across the world from our loved ones, we can jump on Skype and see them within seconds. If we're lost, we can simply look up our location on a map on our phones. If a natural disaster happens, we can search for the information ourselves, rather than waiting for the broadcast news to tell us.
All these conveniences make our lives seamlessly easier and integrated. I think it's something we often take for granted. This technology is unheard of in some countries, yet it is at our fingertips every minute of every day. Although I am thankful for this and although I should be since I work in advertising, I often wonder back to the days when this technology wasn't readily available.
Every day I walk through Chicago or sit on public transportation, I judge those around me whose eyes are peeled to their iPhone screens, or whose fingers are latched closely to their iPads. But then I come out of my judgement and realize, shit, I'm one of those people.
I didn't obtain a smart phone until May of this year, and honestly, I was just fine without a smartphone before I got it. However, now that I have my iPhone, I'm not sure I could live without it. It's usually never more than 10 feet away from me. But WHY? Am I afraid I'm going to miss an important text? Am I afraid someone may look through my phone? Do I simply just have separation anxiety? It's sad, really.
There are days I realize how pathetic I'm being and I leave my phone somewhere in the house I know I won't be for awhile. Some days, I just need to re-boot. I often envy those countries that don't have the technology we have. I miss the days when people would get together to catch up instead of doing it through social media. I miss the days when going to the library was considered a pastime. I miss the days when you had to call collect. I miss the days when it wasn't odd to strike up a conversation with a stranger. I miss the days we all knew how to talk to others casually.
Technology has done so much harm to our worlds. It's taken the personal and created the impersonal. It's taken traditional and created digital. It's taken lives and created hunger-driven techies.
But, technology's double-edged sword has done a lot of good. It's brought breaking news to our attention within seconds. It's brought new media platforms that were not readily available a decade ago. It's brought long-lost souls together.
Technology was almost correctly predicted almost 20 years ago. I can only imagine the technology we will have 20 years from now. It's exciting, but also scary. This double-edged sword we call technology is going to continue to slice into our lives, whether it be good or bad. All we can do is sit back and watch it all unfold and decide what path we take.
With sharp edges and convenient slices,
