the evolution of excuses
It’s midnight. A friend just texted me to meet her at some bar, but I’m already home and it’s Wednesday. That won’t really work as an excuse.
I’ve decided to respond in half an hour when either I will have perked up or it will seem more likely that I am already at home. I will blame the delayed response on the train.
This mundane little anecdote got me thinking about how 3-5 years ago she would have called instead of texting, and my excuse for not answering would most likely be that the phone was on silent or I was in the other room.
3-5 years before that, I would not have even had a cell phone and my answering machine would have picked up the call, because I would actually have been in the other room.
3-5 years before that, she would not have called because I would still have been living with my parents.
While mobile technology is making it easier to be connected to the digital world while actually having a life in the physical world, is it making it harder for us to be alone?
As technology becomes more powerful we are able to take it with us to more and more places. Soon, I won’t be able to use the train as an excuse because the satellite signal will be strong enough to work underground.
A popular excuse I could have used in all of the aforementioned situations is the the failure of the technology itself; the phone was off the hook, my battery was dead, blackberry messenger is acting up!
But which sounds more plausible? Human error or the failure of the device? I think at the moment this is one of those glass half empty? or half full? type questions to which there is no “correct” response, but the future may change this.
As technology evolves, so will our excuses. My real question is: as technology improves, will it malfunction less frequently? When the only explanation for miscommunication or any sort of delay can only possibly be human error, what kind of society will we live in?
Don’t get me wrong, I believe very strongly in the advancement of mobile technology. I think ultimately no one should require a desktop, everything we need should fit on a mobile device. However, there are times when you don’t want folks to see that you have opened their email or received their text. Or worse, your location dot on a gps-powered realtime map.
There is something to be said for privacy. For a person’s right to hide. As we move forward, improving the range of satellites, the durability of mobile devices and the scope of technology’s involvement in our lives I believe we should also invent accompanying privacy settings for every innovation.
Privacy is a basic human right. Technology should always be capable of protecting it, even while dramatically increasing the ease of remote communication.
I agree with you. I never understood why people feel the need to overshare esp on Twitter. Also, everyone deserves their alone time and privacy. Maybe someone will develop a privacy app for mobile devices. There is already a number you can call that will put you through direcrtly to someone’s voicemail if you don’t want to talk to them.