Everyday Technology! A Reality Or A Myth
Everyday Technology is a foundational building block of small machines and consumer goods that became objects of everyday use in our daily life.
If we turn back and go into flashback, human civilization has experienced the monumental innovation in terms of big technologies and small day-to-day uses technologies like the bicycle, typewriter, a sewing machine to the modern day revolutionizing gadget like a smartphone.
At the same time, it is important to analyse the fitment, uses, footprints that leave on human and impact on the way in which people worked and travelled, the clothes they wore, and the kind of food they ate. But the effect of these machines are not limited to the daily rituals of society, in fact such small-scale technologies became an integral to new ways of thinking about class, race, gender, as well as nationhood in a more broader sense.
Day-to-day People’s Life And Technological Imagination
The inextricable relationship between people and technology need not explanation since the inception of a human. History of science and technologies has always been an endeavour to explore the possibilities. And the human being always first explored and invented something which is used in day-to-day life means on priority index everyday technology is always on top. Everyday technology varies based on society and way of living in India, it may be different from other developed countries. Considering the way of life and leaders, here the vision of India was/is for rural and decentralized society in which technology would match the human scale and measured the pace of society. If we take an example of a sewing machine, it offered a path to female emancipation and transformation of society at large. Let’s take a look at other similar products like a bicycle which became the primary mode of travelling a few decades back.
Technology And Well-being
For decades, we have had overserved a significant trend that digital life continued to expand people’s boundaries and opportunities. However, the majority of people also think that digital life will be most harmful to people’s health, mental fitness and happiness.
What we believe is, it’s not about the technology will be harmful to well beings of people but the people’s approach toward that. How an individual is approaching an object is the single most component that defines the outcome. Therefore, personal and societal impacts of technology should be always discussed in reference to people. Means, our focus should be more on empowering human being rather than a machine. Those who argue that human well-being will be harmed also acknowledge that technology will continue to enhance various aspects of life. And they also believe there is no turning back. At the same time, hundreds of them suggested interventions in the coming years they feel could mitigate the problems and emphasize the benefits.
Everyday Technology And Modernising Lives
If we look back into prehistoric era, the importance of stone tools is considered fundamental in the human development. In the very same period, control of fire by early humans was the turning point in the cultural aspect of mankind and the associated development of cooking was the spark that radically changed human evolution altogether. These cultural advancements allowed for human geographic dispersal, cultural innovations, and changes to diet and behaviour. Therefore, over a period of time, everyday technology has enhanced the people’s living from various dimensions. If we go by an example, let’s analyse the early day’s communication framework and modern communication framework – it has improved the people productivity in day-to-day life significantly.
The Modernising living is the process of modernization within societies. Modernization refers to a model of a progressive transition from a ‘pre-modern’ or ‘traditional’ to a ‘modern’ society in terms of the way we communicate, do business, travel, transport and educate society. These we can also consider a social variable that contributes to the individual progress. Hence considering the milestone we achieved from the prehistoric era to the 21st century, everyday technology has contributed in every sphere of society, thus it’s a reality.
Everyday Technology: What Next
Looking back at the journey so far, in coming years there will be several technological advancements. And the majority of everyday technology will be equipped with Artificial Intelligence. Industry leaders in technology space already took several initiatives like Augmented Reality to advance the way we conceive the world, Smart technology to build a smart home, Autonomous Cars – to simplify the travelling. These advancement and innovation show the restless journey of human endeavour. Undoubtedly, everyday technology is going to take a leap in coming years and that will establish another milestone in civilization.
Conclusion
Each one us using the technology in our daily life and in several ways, it has improved our living standards. Not only the upper and middle-class, even a lower middle class society has experienced the revolutionizing technology which they can’t even imagine if it’s not a reality. People need a conscious approach of life to use the technology to enhance their boon of life. Irrespective of life people live, each and every class of people enjoying everyday technology in every dimension of their life.
