I am convinced that technology is making us lazy. Once upon a time, visiting a friend or family member meant traveling; nowadays we are satisfied with a few minutes on FaceTime or Skype. We friend and defriend people from social networks without actually meeting them. Our photographs are digitized, which allows us to keep what we want and delete the rest. We can order food and groceries online without leaving home.
What makes technology even more fascinating is that it evolves so fast that we have trouble finding ways to take advantage of it. And as we get lazier, we expect technology get simpler. With this in mind, I came up with a few observations of how technology is making us lazy:
- If you call a friend’s cell phone and he doesn’t answer immediately, and you wonder where he is; technology is making you lazy.
- If you set aside time to pay your bills online, technology is making you lazy.
- If you blame your GPS for sending you to a dead end street, technology is making you lazy.
- If you use Facebook to send holiday cards, technology is making you lazy.
- If your kids consider Wikipedia a reliable resource for term papers, technology is making them lazy.
- If family time involves everyone sitting together in the living room playing Candy Crush on their smartphone, technology is making you lazy.
- If writing to your mother involves sending a text message, technology is making you lazy.
- Last but not least (and this is true for me): If you call your father in the living room from your bedroom because you don’t want get out of bed, technology is making you lazy.
If you have a few observations of your own that you would like to share—please send them to me. I’m David Dick, and I’m Talking Usability