I love this quote by Daniel Kantor over at Collide Magazine in the article How Expensive Technology Can Cheapen Us.
I think when the technology becomes not only the focal point but the prerequisite, we’ve cheapened not only the art, but our humanity. I’m not against technology. My design firm is filled with high-end technical equipment. But we first practice the fundamental craft of design. We think about things like composition, scale, balance, rhythm, contrast, hospitality, flow. It takes years to learn to master these elements. Technology often presents us with the illusion that you need not think about these things. Yet nothing could be further from the truth if you want your efforts to express something of the human experience. I’m a big fan of technology in service of humanity. It’s the reverse that cheapens us.
That probably seems obvious enough, but I think it can be very difficult with our obsession with all the technology now available. I’ve been reminded a lot of this issue as I read more and more that technology is only as good as when we think about people first.
Question: Do you have one piece of technology that rather than it being of service to you, you tend to be in service to it?
Laptop?
Cell phone?
