The Dark Side of Frictionless Technology

The closer technology brings us to the cusp of feeling like we are the gods of our time, the more incredibly offensive it seems to be reminded of all the ways in which we still aren’t. So you get this utterly bizarre situation where the world speeds up and gets more and more efficient, and we have all this technology for saving time, but it doesn’

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This is something that for the most part, I don’t think technology can ever fully satisfy — it’s just too frictionless. Acknowledging existence requires real, personalized effort — something that tapping your screen to heart react will never fulfill.

This arc plays out across all kinds of apps, and all kinds of human relationships, as tech companies seek to find and solve every type of “friction” and discomfort. But those efforts are rooted in the mistaken idea that being a person shouldn’t come with difficult emotions—that we aren’t often, in fact, served by hard conversations or uncomfortable... See more

Our most advanced technologies are not enhancing our connectivity, but thwarting it. They are replacing and devaluing our humanity, and—in many different ways—undermining our respect for one another and ourselves. Sadly, this has been by design. But that’s also why it can be reversed.

PERPETUAL TRANSFORMATION... AND TO WHAT END

The reason I write about technology, is to provide a trail of my thoughts as we work through what it means to be molded by the tools we seek to mold.

We are absolutely massaged over by technology. And the internet, what has taken over more of our perceived reality than the truly experienced physical embod... See more