Extra : Technology assignment_Seo Eun Su

  

In this world, people often think it would be impossible to live everyday life without electronic devices. It is especially thought that internet connection is a necessity since everyone is connected via social media and so. However, I wondered what would happen if I avoid from every technology and live one day without any of it.

 

The methodology of my experiment are as follows. The date I choose was June 30th, and I tried to live without 20th and 21st century technology. Since I banned myself from using phone or any electronic devices, I wrote a memo on paper with pen after every meal times. The time zone was right after breakfast, lunch, dinner. The observer was myself, writing down detailed daily routine per every one hour.

 

Now I would like to describe the day following 3 meal times.

First of all, I woke up at 8am and ate simple breakfast. I was not feeling well and a bit tired. If it was a normal day, I would have spend my browsing social media or watching YouTube, but I remembered that this is an experiment. Therefore, I was bored so wrote a memo about that feeling and then went to sleep again. I woke up again at 10am and went outside to meet friends. I was a bit concerned because I couldn't call or text-message them about meeting schedule, which means there is now way to know if anything happened or canceled. However, I chose to just arrive in the promised place and met friends.

At this point, I felt that maybe we are under unnecessary anxiety of contact because of technology. Nowadays, we feel like it is important to constantly on-line and chat with people. If not, we even suffer from isolation depression. People from 19th century wouldn't have thought about this kind of endless contact. They would have waited with patience if someone was late because there might be some problem, and also the overall tempo of life would have been much slower and leisurely. Therefore, I thought the pressure of contact is maybe harming our mental.

 

Second, I ate launch with my friends at 1pm and there was a TV. I had to explain the experiment and tell friends to ignore it together. However, one friend accidentally talked a subject about the drama on TV and we teased her. This showed that I was able to endure desire to watch television because I could choose to concentrate on the conversation, but TV really does have a big influence in our daily small-talk issues. I thought we are not that different from 19th century regarding television because there are plenty of things enjoy or talk about other than it. It is possible to be informed the news via newspaper, spend time with friends and have fun from diverse hobbies in our life. I thought the easiest medium we could live without among computer, TV and phone would be TV.

 

Third, I went exercising to gym and had to check a QR-code on the computer screen. However, I was limiting myself from using computer so chose to write my name and individual informations on a note. Espacially in this situation of pandemic, it would be extremely hard to care every single person's data without computer system. Also, computer is managing everything in society from transportation to school, offices, etc. When I wrote the third memo after the 8pm dinner, I thought that our lives are very different from those in 19th century because of computer. It gathers informations and makes us able to quickly handle big data. For example, we can find places where we never went to through GPS, which is based on computer system. I found it difficult to actually find the cafe and meet with friends on the experiment day, too. Therefore, I believe the not every technology is ruling our life but it definitely is a very powerful force in our lives. It makes people accustomed to certain way of life and shape our society's culture.

 

Throughout this experiment, I was able to live without TV but found it difficult without phone and computer, as I was already adapted in and relying on those technologies. In my opinion, Our lives are much faster and a but compulsive compared with the 19th century.