This morning was a complete and utter disaster. Every morning that I have classes I take the Long Island Railroad to get to class on time. Today, when I arrived at the station I found out that they’re system was down and was not able to tender credit or debit transactions. Although, I usually have cash on me, today I didn’t because I was running late and didn’t have time to stop at the bank. So I was pretty much stranded at the LIRR station with no where to go. How ironic?
This got me thinking about how much we really do rely on technology. To place important phone calls, to operate the trains and cars we use, to make simple transactions, everything is powered by technology. If one little thing goes wrong, it can reconfigure our entire day or quite possibly our life. This might seem like a bit of a stretch, but just think about it. How much do you rely on transportation? Probably more than you think.
In fact, people today rely on technology for things that we could do for ourselves. For example, before the development of the GPS people got around just fine. They would drive from the east coast to the west coast with just a map. Now I am a sensible person; I acknowledge that technology has helped people in numerous ways, but perhaps we have become too dependent on it. What do you think? Does the good outweigh the bad?
I totally agree with everything you mentioned. I live in Brooklyn, and have that means I have to take one bus and two trains to get to school. We rely on technology and transportation more then we realize. A couple of weeks ago after the Boston bombing, we were having bomb scares around the State. Mysteriously random packages were popping up around NY. That day, my transportation was shut down both ways; the commuters were not keeping us informed on what was going on. I had no way of getting to school. If I did not have my phone, I would not have an understanding of what was going on. I would not have any capability on knowing how to transport myself from Brooklyn to the city and considering how inadequate some of our commuters are, I had to rely on myself and my Internet. I think everything good comes with the bad, considering how hesitant I am about technology, I was grateful that I had access to inhabit all of the information I needed for that particular day.
Oh man have I been there before, when I had to get to an express bus and the only train station in walking distance doesnt have a working machine that takes cards, or cash whatever it is I have at the time. Yes we do rely on technology far too much and unfortunately there is nothing we can do about it. With everything running on plastic or on batteries its harder to get by without using the one thing thats really bringing us now.