This article appeared in Electronic Design and has been published here with permission.
What you’ll learn:
- How communications technologies affect you.
- The unintended consequences of communications technologies.
- How to deal with these technologies.
You have probably heard the expression “What hath God wrought?” The original was in the Bible (Numbers 23:23) and Samuel Morse used it as the first message sent over his recently invented telegraph on May 24, 1844. It’s an appropriate question to ask today about other new communication technologies. I’m talking about the cell phone, the internet, social media, 5G, and new things to come.
What got me to thinking about this is the phenomenon that you all have probably witnessed. At any gathering of friends, neighbors, work associates, or family, practically everyone is looking at a screen, their smartphone, or if not that, a laptop or tablet. Conversation is limited unless it’s related to showing someone the latest animal pictures or some interesting or unusual video. Others are checking Facebook or Twitter for updates. Texts and email predominate.
People are communicating and that’s a good thing. However, I don’t consider myself as being addicted to all of it as is seemingly the case with others. It appears our whole lives now depend more on this technology. People go crazy if they can’t use their smartphone.
Using one of my favorite expressions, uttered by attorney Saul in the Breaking Bad video series, is “I am going to go out on a limb here and say this has happened before.” Television got a similar response to smartphone usage and related activities. TV technology received good reviews and bad. People said what a wonderful technology it was to bring news, entertainment, and education into our homes.
However, others also said that watching too much TV would be bad for you. The feeling was that the TV networks and the government will be indoctrinating and brainwashing us. Actually, the TV ads did that. I remember hearing a while back that the average person watches five to seven hours of TV a day. That’s probably less today as everyone is on their cell phone, unless they’re watching TV on their phone.
Big Tech Getting Bigger
Another technology is having a bigger impact on our lives. Big Tech (Google, Facebook, Twitter, Apple, and other social media) have basically taken over our society. They control our lives in so many ways. People say that these companies may censor our speech or delete our accounts if we say something they don’t like. And they collect and sell our information.
These companies have a major influence on our lives. Can you live with that? Most of us do. But, if you don’t like what’s taking place, the solution is easy. Just don’t use the service if you don’t agree with the policies, procedures, or impact.
The Big Tech companies do serve a useful purpose and provide services most of us use, particularly in terms of providing a major way to communicate. But the unintended consequences have changed our lives. And I suspect we will see even more of that to come.
As for 5G, its status is mixed. The rollout seems to be different depending on where you live and what carriers serve your area. And there are several unanswered questions. Like, who needs 1 Gb/s or more downloads to a smartphone? Will anyone really notice any difference between 4G LTE and 5G? Fixed wireless access will be appreciated if it’s offered where needed. Will users be happy having to be within a few hundred feet of a small 5G cell site to get a connection, plus endure little or no indoor coverage using the 5G millimeter-wave bands? We shall soon see.
Technology is a good thing, but it can be misused. Most of us are affected by it. Those of you developing the next new thing should all take a more active role in determining its direction and better predicting the unintended consequences.