Tech: Are there any limits?

"Hail, Technology!"

Tech is often revered as the best thing that ever happened to the human race. I cannot be an hypocrite here. I do agree that technology is the power behind most of the present evolutionary growth. But anything in excess is not good, we should always search for the middle. So yes, I used the word "excess" to describe tech. Look around, technology IS everywhere and it is growing at an alarming pace worldwide. You could argue that this is a great thing and point out how much it has helped sectors such as health, for example. Or how it has been making our lives easier. But I do believe that this rampant growth has not been benefiting every single social sector. 

Technology has been growing at such a speed that society has not have enough time to process it and adapt to this grand new world. Social paradigms and social evolution change at a much slower pace than technological growth. Education and parenting are great examples to illustrate this idea. 

Let's say a 10 year-old has research to do for school and goes online for resources. And there, on the same webpage where he or she can find what they were looking for, there is also a piece about terrorism illustrating death. Have you wondered how that is processed by that 10 year-old? Is such a young child ready to comprehend such a harsh image?

Even a 17 year-old is not ready in the present system. Adolescents haven't been properly taught on how to have a critical mind. How to observe that one piece of news doesn't necessarily explain a situation as a whole and in a neutral way. That they should criticize everything they read, look for other sources, for other points of view, etc. Online articles have been getting smaller and smaller to cater to the faster social pace. After all, time IS money. So shorter summaries of big stories are all people are willing to digest. But is that good information? What is happening to quality? 

Back to that 10 year-old. Are parents ready to educate and teach how to use technology in a non-harmful way? Are teachers ready to prepare children to grow as critics? The answer is no. But they cannot be blamed. Education evolves in a much slower pace than technology grows. So one cannot accompany the other and is ultimately left behind. The big problem here is that society has not yet stopped to even ask these big questions. 

Stop?! No one has time for that in a world ruled by technology. That's the big paradox of this century. Tech has been speeding up all social processes without anyone trying to hold it back. You can now buy a house in a couple of minutes for example. Or do your groceries in between two work meetings in five minutes online. You can pay your bills while listening to a TED Talk on Youtube. In other words, is the society of multitasking. And why? Back to the same answer behind it all: time in a technology driven world IS money. Waisting time is like losing an opportunity that you might not even know was there in the first place. Is the constant stress of not wanting to risk the chance to achieve more in less time. 

Nowadays everybody is available all the time. Actually, everybody must be available all the time. That's rule number one set by the tech world. And that's not only valid for your personal life, but the professional too. Just thirty years ago, when people physically left the workspace, they were literally leaving work behind them for the day. But now work goes with you, it is on your cellphone, on your inbox and there is no excuse for ignoring it. Messages and emails come in almost 24/7, and since we are always online, you can't really ignore them. There is no excuse.

After all the examples above, it should be clear how powerless we are in the face of technology. We are drowning as a society in its fast pace. And we cannot or even do not want to stop it to catch up. That doesn't seem to be a potential solution. The only way out seems to be running faster than it to ultimately surpass it or at least beat in the same intense rhythm.  

So I ask you again: are there any limits to technology? And if so, where are they? Who is going to throw the first life vest? Who is going to have the courage to shout "stop" (at least so that we can catch up)?