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The evolution in technology has without doubt provided many benefits to our life. However it appears that in most cases that the application of this technology has one major objective and that is to create the more from less as stated above. Many organisations see this technology as a means of lowering their costs and increasing their profits. This is not necessarily a negative thing as long as a balance is achieved between this and the impact it has on people. It is now ever more difficult to “get away” from it all. Mobile phones, laptops, redirections, message banks, paging, and email have all provided mechanisms of fast and rapid communication. What they have also provided is a way, which we can be tracked down 24 hours a day seven days a week. For many of us this compels us to respond and react whenever something rings, beeps or flashes at us.

Try something, next time a phone rings – try to ignore it and let it ring out. Out instinct is to stop whatever we are doing and answer it. This is quite an incredible concept when considered. A person planning to meet with someone may take great care in his or her personal presentation. They will take the effort, time and expense to move them from one place to another be it by walking, car, train or plane. They ensure that they arrive to their meeting on time – as this is the right thing to do and shows respect for the other person.  The meeting commences and the phone rings – this compelling force to answer comes in and immediately he is pushed into second place. The person calling may still be in bed, unshaven and worst of all may have in fact dialled the wrong number – yet priority was given to his actions. This indeed a bizarre scenario but how often has this happened to you?

I am certainly not against technology as it is an important part of my life and provides many direct benefits to me. What people require is to be sufficiently empowered to ensure that it does not dictate or take over the quality of their life. In fact with careful thought and deliberate action technology can be used extremely effectively to develop a higher Quol. However this will not simply happen, it needs to be planned and carried out deliberately.

With regards to our children technology has provided a range of gizmos and electronic inventions that we as children could have only dreamed about. Are these new ways of entertaining and “teaching” our kids very beneficial? We are and will be, for a while yet at least, human beings. I believe one of the most important and crucial skills that our kids and indeed ourselves should look at developing, ahead of all else, is the ability to simply get on with our fellow human beings. Contrary to what many people believe this does just not happen. Most of us are not born with an innate skill or intuition that allows us to interact with others effortlessly and smoothly. In fact so many of human traits go directly against this – jealousy, judgement, assuming, self focus just to name a few. So with this in mind has technology assisted in the learning and development of these so necessary life skills?

I would suggest, as many people would agree, this is highly unlikely. Most of the technology type things that have been created “do” something. Make a noise, flash , whirr, provide colour, sound etc etc. It does not allow kids to think and create from within themselves. Also smaller children are unable to distinguish between what is real and what is fantasy. So the line between acceptable ways to treat and interact with other people becomes somewhat blurred indeed. The "feel" part of dealing with people is becoming an insignificant part of our interactions, not just for kids but for us adults as well.

The “way” in which someone is saying something, the look of expression on their face, the way they are sitting just are the things that we pick up intuitively but have been taught to ignore as they can not be rationalised or quantified. Natures greatest example of this is around us all the time. This example knows just how we feel, can solicit a reaction from us every time, knows how to put a smile of our face, and “knows”  without the needs for words. This is of course a dog. Have you ever seen the way a dog will come over to you wagging it’s tail, head down, and just melt to your touch? When we are annoyed or angry how that dog will drop down low and look at us to say very clearly “I’m sorry” without words? The beautiful part of this interaction is that the dog simply wants to please us, it does not want to sell you something, or get your vote – it has one pure motivation only. These are skills that a dog has learned and uses very effectively.

I would suggest that the only way we are able to develop skills like this so that they become part of us is by using them and practising. Technology at all levels limits the time and opportunity to do just this – and along with this we run the risk of losing another skill set that 50 years ago was common sense. As the expression goes common sense is no longer that common. We only have 168 hours every week. The challenge for all of us is to decide how exactly we use this limited time. Simplistically if we spend time doing one activity it is not possible for us to use that time doing anything else. This sounds obvious but it is common for people to feel frustrated about their lives because “I just did not get everything done”. When they sit down and look at it they tried to allocate 200 hundred on things to do in 168 hours. Up until this point in time no one ahs worked out how to do this. If you have found a way please let me know – it would make a great book! So as mere mortals we have to resign ourselves that we have so many ours in a day, and how we spend those hours will have a profound affect on the quality of life – today but also into the future.

So as with all things technology has it’s place and is indeed a very powerful tool. What I am suggesting is that we should consider making conscious decisions as to how it interacts and intrudes into each of our lives. If we don’t, we will simply wake up one day and realise that “every step we take and every move we make” is reliant on technology. Will we become the sort of people that we have decided to? This will not happen tomorrow, next week or next year. This is one of the illusions of life – these things tend to come into play slowly slowly into our own lives. In this way we hardly notice the changes and the subtle daily differences. But one thing that is inevitable is indeed change.

By Robyn Antonelli, quolkids.com