How and when when use technology is within our power. We can wield it as a tool for better quality of life. We can also just turn it off.
Technology gets a lot of bad press these days, some of which is well deserved. Big tech companies don’t always appear to respect privacy, and many of us are addicted to using our phones.
However, let’s not forget that we can decide when to pick up these tools and how to use them. It would be a big step to shift the conversation away from thinking of ourselves as victims of change and to begin thinking of how we can use these tools to better ourselves and our communities. Technology is often a vehicle for passive consumption, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
4 Ways to Leverage Tech
I‘ll highlight a few simple ways to use technology to build ourselves up rather than merely consume. Instead of focusing on advanced techniques requiring special skills and training, I’ll start with the ways most of us can begin creating today.1. Photography: With digital cameras built into
our smartphones, most of us now have a great camera in our possession at all times. Taking thoughtful pictures of ordinary and memorable moments and sharing them with people you love or reminiscing about them is a great way to use technology to draw people closer together. Yes, taking a picture can sometimes pull you out of the moment you’re in, but it’s just as possible that putting your photographer hat on allows you to appreciate your life from a unique vantage. In the same way that movies or good TV shows can elevate home and work experiences through quality artistry, learning to take great pictures can add layers of richness to your own experiences.
2. Blog: Nowadays, when most people think of social media, they think of people mindlessly scrolling on phones from one shallow interaction to the next. But one of the first forms of social media—blogging—is, in my mind, the greatest. Blogging elevates the status of the ordinary writer sharing ordinary ideas with others.
The high point of blogging saw perhaps more people writing than ever before. I’m under no illusion that I am a great writer, but every week, I receive emails from people inspired or moved by something I wrote. The world is big, and the appetite for new ideas and novel perspectives is nearly bottomless. We can encourage each other to think in ways that are deeper than a seven-second video clip.
3. Email: I particularly enjoy reading books that are collections of letters a particular person sent and received from acquaintances in their life. It gives a neat view into the more personal and intimate side of the human experience. I also find something comforting about the customs and mannerisms of two people communicating back and forth. While people don’t send letters much anymore, that tradition still exists today.
Most people think their email inboxes are a place for spam and automated messages. However, if you diligently unsubscribe and mark pieces as unwanted, your inbox can become an oasis of personal messages. You can also use email to send people thoughtful, funny, or philosophical emails. And maybe someday, if you’re lucky (or unlucky?), they'll get collected and put into a book for someone else to enjoy.
4. DIY: Without realizing it, we may live in the golden age of do-it-yourself (DIY) accessibility. In the past, you would be limited to taking on projects where you knew someone who could help you if you got stuck or where you could find the answers in a book at your local library. But today, with a specific search on YouTube, you'll likely find a particular answer to the problem you’re trying to solve.
Even more, if you don’t know what kind of project you want, there are great sites, like Pinterest, where you can see what other people are doing and use their examples as a starting point. In my life, I have tackled large remodeling projects and automotive and appliance repair jobs that I otherwise would have hired out were it not for the fantastic resources at my disposal.
The above list isn’t exhaustive—it’s just a reminder of the power of human agency to decide what we want to do with the options that technology presents to us. A
2015 research article in the journal Art Education lays out the point that technology is not a creative dead end. Sometimes, new technologies bring forth new waves of creativity, such as the way the iPhone led to the creation of thousands of apps.
I see too many people blaming technology for causing people to live passively. And sure, technology like the internet enables that to happen on a large scale and probably makes it more fun and feasible to be a full-time consumer than before.
But that’s just one path.
I find it more helpful to focus on the positive opportunities that technology has created and the new ways to pursue
old-fashioned values that never go out of style, such as hard work and creativity. I can’t control everyone, but I can try to make my little corner of the world an example and a bright spot for myself and my family.
