The march of technology is inevitable and inexorable. We can’t stop it or even slow it down and we definitely can’t reverse it (nor should we want to). As I have noted in a previous post, one of my concerns is that this progress is so rapid that we don’t have time to determine or even consider the implications of each technological advancement on our individual and collective lives before it is released and entrenched in our personal lifestyles and the zeitgeist of our culture.

I will admit that, as someone who has serious concerns about the influence of technology on us since the introduction of the Internet, I may be more Chicken Little than Paul Revere. There’s no doubt that calls of “The sky is falling” have been heard throughout the history of technological advancement, for example, with the introduction of the printing press, the internal combustion engine, and the television. In all these cases, most would agree that each of these “game changers” have been boons to humanity. Plus, we are adaptable creatures who have demonstrated the ability adjust to all sorts of changes with which we have been confronted.

And it’s easy to make doom-and-gloom predictions that may or may not come true. But we can look at what is happening now and draw some conclusions from what we see before our very eyes.

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Recent research that has been making the media rounds lately has reported that when people are focused on a task they indicate that they are happier than when their mind wanders. This research is obviously not breaking news for the tens of millions of Buddhists and uncounted others who have experienced the phenomenon of being “present” or “in the now” first hand. Quite simply, being in the moment allows us to fully experience whatever we are doing and gain the full benefits of what the experience has to offer. In contrast, letting our minds wander or allowing our minds to be distracted constantly prevents this state of “flow” and, as the recent evidence suggests, actually makes us less happy.

This finding is another example of science confirming what we already know. At the same time, knowing something intuitively often doesn’t ring loudly enough for us to recognize the subtle, though significant, impact it can have on our lives. So telling us what we already know can help us to connect crucial phenomena to how we live our lives.

The implications on these findings, along with other recent research demonstrating that so-called multitasking actually interferes with efficiency, performance, productivity calls into serious question how most of us use (and often abuse) new technology and social media. Consider this. Why would people engage in activities that make them both less productive and more unhappy? Yet that is precisely what countless of us appear to do when we multitask or use technology in a way that prevents us from focusing on the task at hand.

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Facebook founder and CEO, baby-faced billionaire, and unintended star of a hit (don’t miss the double meaning) film Mark Zuckerberg announced last week that it will soon be offering a new messaging system, Facebook Messages, that integrates email (so 20^th century), IM, SMS, Facebook, and other social media into one seamless stream of cyber-communication. With this proclamation, Facebook officially demonstrated that it is no longer content being the number-one social networking web site on Earth. Marky Z has decided that it’s time to grow up, aim higher, and take on the big boys of the digital-entertainment-technology-industrial complex (Messrs. Gates, Jobs, and Schmidt). But this news is just a shot across the bow of the big ships of the Microsoft, Apple, and Google armadas. There are also rumors that Facebook is developing software for a new mobile phone, thus setting its sights on a market that is owned by his elderly (in tech years) compadres.

Never mind that Facebook Messaging appears to be similar to Google Wave, which was released last year and is already defunct, and AOL’s recent announcement of Project Phoenix, likely its last ditch effort to remain relevant in the cyber world.

And never mind that Google and Apple have a seemingly insurmountable lead in smartphone technology, market share, and fanboy devotees.

And never mind that, after several privacy-related snafus, many end users are a bit leery of giving Facebook even more access to their digital lives.

And never mind that Facebook is years behind and entering an arena of which it is largely unfamiliar. Can Facebook create technology beyond its social networking that is innovative and edgy enough to break end users of their deeply entrenched digital habits? Microsoft, with its, IMHO, years-too-late rollout of its Windows Phone 7 OS (to very mixed reviews), is attempting to do the same thing as we speak. And, let’s be realistic, though Marky Z has deep pockets to support his new toys, Uncle Bill’s wealth and marketing muscle makes him appear to be a pauper and a 110-pound weakling (okay, that’s a slight exaggeration).

As anyone who has ever glanced at (but, of course, doesn’t actually read) the yearly Predictions issue of The National Enquirer or watched any of the truly tedious and far-too-long NFL pre-game shows on ESPN knows, it’s easy to prognosticate because no one ever goes back to prove you so thoroughly wrong. But, given the security of that fact, I will make a bold prediction based on my moderately well-researched understanding of Facebook and, more importantly, my armchair psychoanalysis its youthful emperor.

Here goes. However brilliant Marky Z may be at tech stuff, because he is only 26, not an experienced businessman, and, if The Social Network holds any truth to what lies deep inside his psyche, somewhat immature and ego-driven, he will make some poor strategic decisions and push Facebook to bite off more than it can chew in the next few years. Of course, Facebook will remain an immense force in the cyber world for years to come because, well, Marky Z has about 500 million friends to support him and no sign of a truly competitive rival in social networking to challenge his supremacy (of course, that’s what they said about MySpace and watch out for Google).

But if he has a “come to Jesus” moment, recognizes his own limitations (as Larry Page and Sergey Brin did at Google in bringing in Eric Schmidt), and can go to the well again with the vision that enabled him to create and build Facebook, Mr. Zuckerberg will be able to leverage Facebook’s platform and take it in an exciting new direction. If he and Facebook can mature from an unlikely start-up to a feisty adolescent (where they are now) to a mature professional (while keeping the ping pong and Razors), then Mr. Zuckerberg will be a major player on the technology/entertainment/media ball field for years to come.

If that happens, he’ll be able to look back twenty years from now at the ripe old age (in tech years) of 46 at his latest youthful doppelganger and think “Welcome to the jungle, my young and naïve friend. You got something? Bring it on.”

The next time you’re walking down the street, at the gym, in an elevator, out for a run, or even at your local coffee shop, look at the people around you and tell me what you see. What I notice is the ubiquity of people with headphones in their ears. Though not quite in the majority yet, these wired people are definitely a growing minority.

If you follow my Psychology of Technology posts, you know that, though I’m pretty tech savvy and connected, I have some real concerns about the impact of new technology and media on basic aspects of the human condition such as thinking, decision making, and relationships. And I find the widespread presence of headphones in situations that ten years ago would have been rare more than a bit troubling.

Let’s be realistic. New technology will always insert itself into our lives (no pun intended), but, unfortunately, technological advancement occurs at such a rapid pace these days that considering its impact on us usually occurs in the rearview mirror. By then, the technology is well entrenched and it’s likely too late to alter its invasive trajectory in our lives. Admittedly, music through headphones is really not new technology with the Sony Walkman dating back to 1979, but the size, capacity, and low cost of music players since the advent of digital storage and multi-use devices, such as smartphones, has made it more available and practical for frequent and widespread use. I wonder whether the increased presence of headphones in the ears is due to these technological developments or a more insidious influence from changes in our social fabric.

The question that I keep coming back to is: Why the need to be constantly tuned in (to whatever people are listening to) and tuned out (of the world around them)?

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Some time ago, I wrote a post titled The Blogosphere Jungle in which I described the truly uncivil nature of the blogosphere in which respect for opposing views and dispassionate discourse were out and ad hominem attacks and demonization were in.

Yet, as I have followed and responded to many comments to my own blog posts and read many other blogs, I have come to see the “commentariat” in a very different light. Contrary to my earlier belief, it is not another indication of the end of civilization as we know it. Instead, I now see it as a vital force in our democracy that, though not exactly leveling the playing field altogether, it at least flattens it some so that it is not tilted so steeply in favor of the all-powerful ruling class.

To paraphrase Bill Shakespeare, today I come to praise the commentariat, not to bury it.

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In his insightful 2008 article in the Atlantic, Nicolas Carr asks, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” He goes on to explore how new technology has altered our reading habits and, more unsettlingly, how we process information and think. It is a cerebral piece that meets the high intellectual standards we expect of that august magazine.

I, however, would like to bring his lofty discussion of the impact of new technology on our lives down to the muckier level of human dysfunction. I would suggest that not only is the latest technology making us stupider, but it is also making us just plain idiots!

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I’ve been called a skeptic, an alarmist, and a doomsayer because the focus of most of my technology blogging is on the risks of and what’s wrong with technology. I realize that I may sound like a Luddite despite the fact that I’m actually an early adapter and readily admit that I couldn’t function in my work without the plethora of technology that is currently at our fingertips. I guess the reason I come across as such a downer at times is that I assume that we all know about the incredible benefits that technology has to offer us; it’s not worth repeating what we all know to be true. At the same time, I recognize that, with the rapid advancements in computer and communication technology in the last decade, we haven’t had to time consider how these developments will shape our individual and collective lives.

I don’t have a problem with technology. To the contrary, it can be a wonderful tool for progress and change. Technology is already changing our lives cognitively, emotionally, and behaviorally; psychologically, physically, and socially; politically, culturally, and environmentally. My goal is not to suggest that we should reject technology, but rather to ensure that we have control over it rather it controlling us. The ultimate objective of this dissection of technology is to make certain that we use it with perspective and forethought to enhance our lives instead of indifferently or reactively to damage our lives.

I certainly don’t have all the answers. But before we can find answers, we must first ask the right questions. That is what I want to do, to ask the questions that need to be asked in the hope that minds greater than my own will help provide the answers.

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I’ve been reviewing my technology-related blog posts of late and I’ve noticed a particular trend that I find troubling: I seem to be a technology doomsayer. The overriding theme I’ve identified in my own writing about technology is one of skepticism and caution. My posts tend to focus on the problems that technology creates, not on all the wonderful things it has to offer. You might think that I’m a real technology Chicken Little, constantly screaming that the sky is falling.

But the truth is that I am an optimist about new media. I’m constantly on my smartphone, checking email, updating my web site, posting blogs, and using Facebook, LinkedIn, and twitter in my work. So why the bad attitude? Because, though an optimist, I’m also a realist and I see both the good and the bad in how technology impacts our lives. I generally don’t see the need to talk about the good things in that technology has to offer; they are, I think, self-evident and overanalyzing the positives detracts from experiencing their joys. And when technology is making our lives better, why question it. The reality is though that there are bad elements to all parts of life and only by examining them can we increase our awareness and understanding of them and, hopefully, find ways to minimize or alleviate them.

So, to start the year (and decade) on a positive technology note, I want to share with you the ten things I love about technology, in no particular order and with no complaints, just to show you how positive I can be:

1. On-line forums: Communities of helpers and givers; expert, anonymous, altruistic.
2. Skype: The next best thing to being there (for work and family).
3. Facebook: Connecting with your past, enriching your present, expanding your future.
4. Smartphones: So much power and versatility in such a little package.
5. Dual monitors: Maximum productivity; everything I need at my visual fingertips.
6. Notebook computers: I’m at my most efficient working on airplanes.
7. Bluetooth technology: No wires! How do they do that? And who is this King Bluetooth?
8. Digital cameras: Keep shooting till you get a good one (and all free).
9. Designers and engineers: They just keep coming up with cool stuff.
10. Amateur hackers and developers: They make the cool stuff even cooler.
11. A bonus: That life-changing “next big thing” that someone out there hasn’t even thought of yet, but that will be in our hands before we know it.

There you have it, my start-of-a-new-decade burst of optimism about the technologies that will shape our futures (hopefully for the better). What would you add to the list? But don’t expect me to be all smiley-face emoticon about technology from now on. My next post will probably be more 2012 than Avatar!

The Web, the Internet, and all of the new media that has sprung from them , have been a boon to the information age, making information available at our fingertips instantaneously. The sheer volume of information now accessible on line is staggering. As of a few weeks ago, there were more than 21 billion pages on the Web. Information continues to become more available to more people in less time; from web sites to email to RSS feeds to Twitter, we have input at an unprecedented rate and volume. Ironically, as the frequency of information grows, the length of messages shrinks (e.g., Twitter’s 140-character limit. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; think of haiku). And, amazingly, the vast majority of this information is free.

For all its benefits, an unfortunate consequence of this torrent of information is that our “mental inbox” becomes overloaded. With our minds spilling over with information, our primary motivation is to empty it as quickly as possible. We typically use two “information survival” strategies when the inbox fills up. We output as quickly as possible without sufficient thought to either the incoming or outgoing messages. The obvious downside to this approach is that your input lacks thorough consideration and evaluation and your output lacks quality. Or, we are so overwhelmed by emails and text messages that we simply delete large swathes of messages without even looking at them. The obvious downside here is that important messages may be missed.

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The title of this post refers to an epiphany I had over the New Year’s weekend. The realization was  about my relationship with technology, namely, I was exhibiting some of the symptoms of technology addiction.

And I wasn’t the only one in my family with email and Internet issues. My wife, who doesn’t own a smartphone, would, by her own admission, be checking her email or surfing the Web when she should have been paying attention to our daughters. Clearly, neither of us have perfected the in-the-present art of Zen parenting.

For those who follow my Psychology of Technology blog posts, you know that I write about the dangers of letting technology take over our lives and the importance of maintaining control over our technology use. But, I must confess that those ideas had been, up to New Year’s weekend, more theory than reality. But I finally got the chance to test my theories cold turkey.

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