Is technology killing our gut instincts and intuition?

Mainecoonmaniac · Nov 3, 2016

I think technology is really cool. Our lives at times are dependent on it. However, I have a feeling that technology is killing our gut instincts and intuition. We have digital cameras that give you instant feedback of your image along with a histogram, GPS units that give you pin point accuracy of your location. New technology is killing old skills that people relied on daily. For example, when my wife first met and I cooked her rice for our dinner, she asked "How could you cook rice without a rice cooker". I asked her how did folks cooked their rice before the rice cooker was invented. Millennials has lost people skills from being on their smart phones all the time. I think even the medical profession with all the high tech test have killed gut instincts. A lot of doctors have to back up their guesses with a test. So what's your take on the advancement of technology?

tedr1 · Nov 3, 2016

"Killing" is I think too strong a word but technology may put obstructions in the way in the form of distractions from actually producing hard-copy for display. For me this is the ultimate test for a visual image, do I put it on the wall? Electronic picture frames are an interesting variation on the traditional framed print that I think sometimes works as well as a framed print. But the portable display device, the tablet and the smartphone, is at a disadvantage to the framed image, it has no location, it lacks the sense of having a place where the image has been placed with consideration given to surroundings, images are transitory. I recognize that a smartphone may be very useful as a miniature picture book for those on the go, however when I reach home I want my favorite pictures on the wall.

What are the differences between a shoe-box stuffed with 6x4 prints and 35mm negatives on the shelf of the closet, and the memory chip in a smartphone with a thousand pictures on it that can be recalled in an instant?

faberryman · Nov 3, 2016

I do not think the sky is falling.

Alan Klein · Nov 3, 2016

Technology is certainly ruining our pocketbooks. The cost of medical care is soaring because of it. And everyone wants a test, both the doctors and their patients. On the other hand, technology has extended and saved lives. So you don't want to throw out the baby with the bathwater.

GPS navigation with real-time traffic reports including places to eat, location of gas stations, etc. reduces travel time, lowers gas consumption saving energy and costs and helps get you around quicker without getting lost. But I agree I often have no concept how I got anywhere and couldn't repeat the trip without using a GPS. In the old days with maps, I would remember the route. Now it's like I never went before. So you're right that some instincts and intuitions are diminished in the process.

I use with enthusiasm both digital cameras and film cameras, the latter completely manual. Both have their place and I enjoy using one or the other depending which is the better choice at the time.

Technology is a tool. Would you bang in a nail in with a hammer or a rock?

Andrew O'Neill · Nov 3, 2016

It's really hurting originality and creativity. I have watched a steady decline in that area with my students over the last 15 years.

nosmok · Nov 3, 2016

I think it both helps and hinders. The reason I shoot film these days is I noticed I couldn't recall any of the digital photos I was taking, but had excellent memories of the film ones I had shot previously. Now I shoot a lot of film, so much that I don't remember every single image anymore! I would say that any technology that enables a "fast and furious" approach is going to have negative consequences in terms of experience. Experience is how we learn, but if we can do anything-- take a picture, drive to a new place -- before we "know how" to do it, then we might not learn it in the same way. I have recently given up using anything but mechanical, fully manual cameras, and no longer use a light meter. It hasn't really affected the number of "keepers" I get on a roll, and it's definitely liberating to know I can go out to shoot with only camera, lenses and film.

Old-N-Feeble · Nov 3, 2016

I don't think technology is killing our gut instincts and intuition... other than we definitely miss the body language and facial expressions which PREVENTS said instincts/intuition. HOWEVER, I'm sure what killed MY intuition and gut instincts is that sociopaths are far greater in number and far better at deception. I haven't been a good judge of character for a very long time now. People have become far too good at hiding their malfeasance and nefarious intentions.

removed account4 · Nov 3, 2016

i don't think it is killing anything,
but i think technology has made us lazy.
we used to toil in the factories and fields and die at 35, then
the future came. i keep insisting my kids look things up in
a dictionary and print out and edit a DRAFT, they think i am nuts.
i took the red pill though, so i know this is all a mirage ...

Dali · Nov 3, 2016

Technology is not a tool anymore. It became a religion a long time ago.

wiltw · Nov 3, 2016

Mainecoonmaniac said:
I think technology is really cool. Our lives at times are dependent on it. However, I have a feeling that technology is killing our gut instincts and intuition. ... Millennials has lost people skills from being on their smart phones all the time. ... So what's your take on the advancement of technology?

For my birthday, my wife took me out to dinner at a nice restaurant. At an adjacent table to ours, a group a 3 men and 3 women, all twenty-somethings, were already seated and had ordered before we came. All six had their heads buried in their smartphones, all six were thumbing responses to the emails/SMS sent to them. ALL SIX said NOTHING to each other even after their orders were presented and they put the phones down to eat. Eventually, (my guess is 2/3 into the group's time at the restaurant, they finally started to interract with one another!
Sad, sad, sad...how often one can see GROUPS of folks together and each one is interreacting to their phones and not at all to each other in a casual conversation. Millenials seem seem to be a bunch of antisocial hermits!

I do not think photography has been heavily 'instinctual' apart from the timing of the shutter press to catch peak action. Now, with modern digitals, folks simply mash the shutter on multishot mode and pray for a keeper among the frames taken at 6-8 fps!
Automation does insure ignorance...xTTL flash rather than the need for Guide Number arithmetic... ask a group of 10 photographers to write down the principle, and I do not think 50% would even know the concept.

Old-N-Feeble · Nov 3, 2016

wiltw said:
For my birthday, my wife took me out to dinner at a nice restaurant. At an adjacent table to ours, a group a 3 men and 3 women, all twenty-somethings, were already seated and had ordered before we came. All six had their heads buried in their smartphones, all six were thumbing responses to the emails/SMS sent to them. ALL SIX said NOTHING to each other even after their orders were presented and they put the phones down to eat. Eventually, (my guess is 2/3 into the group's time at the restaurant, they finally started to interract with one another!
Sad, sad, sad...how often one can see GROUPS of folks together and each one is interreacting to their phones and not at all to each other in a casual conversation. Millenials seem seem to be a bunch of antisocial hermits!

I agree with regard to people losing eye-contact social skills. However, I think the 'problem' is deeper than the technology at hand. I think our society has been becoming more 'me-centric' for many decades. For instance, video games are mostly lone antisocial 'me-centric' activities that people get hooked on. All those little toys we constantly finger-F are more of a symptom than the cause. I think it's more a matter of selfishness... 'I want what I want' syndrome... toys, cars, sex, wealth. I'm to the point when others start finger-effing their little toys I just excuse myself and leave them to their digital selves.

Luckless · Nov 3, 2016

How many photographers who still use film cameras these days still know how to properly grind a doublet lens? Modern technology and all these "Pre-made gadgets" are killing creativity!

"Don't open that magic box of gears! You'll break it! Send it out to one of the last few magicians left so you can get it fixed before the last of the magi die off and the magic box of gears is rendered a useless paperweight!" - 'Kids' these days seem to have no understanding of even basic mechanics or ability to fabricate even simple parts. They all rely on having stuff made for them, and on sending things out to be worked on by others rather than learning the proper foundations of being a truly modern and diverse human...

Technology changes and common expectations shift. And perceptions of things can change rather radically if you leave yourself on the other side of the fence from what others are doing.

Video games are "Me-centred" and anti-social? Really? Sure, some are, but the same could just as easily be said about photography. Back when I actually took time to be involved with online gaming on a regular basis the games I played were highly social and very team focused. Sure, no one was sitting beside me, but I was in realtime voice communication with more than a dozen friends at a time who happened to be spread across half the globe. We either worked together as a team and communicated effectively within the game, or we lost.

Compare that to the last time I went out with my camera: A long walk, alone, without running into another human or saying a word. The only people I did 'talk' to at all were the two friends who kept texting jokes between the group.
I regularly share things with friends through Facebook or email, and the majority of them I would currently see maybe once or twice a year. (Assuming we end up visiting back home at the same time.)
But no, do go on about how 'anti-social' technology can make people.

I'm an introvert. Personally I find it terribly sad that there are people in this world who can't sit there and keep their mouth shut. Every moment you're next to someone has to be filled with endless and pointless conversations about nothing? The sound of their own voice is so important to them, that they can't possibly wait until they have something of real substance or interest to come to mind before they open their mount? To sit quietly among friends without anyone saying a word is somehow wrong or uncomfortable? These people are serious?

Mainecoonmaniac · Nov 3, 2016

Dali said:
Technology is not a tool anymore. I became a religion a long time ago.

So true. The anointed saints and practices keep on changing. Just like any religion, participate in it without losing yourself, question it and don't accept it so readily.

Pioneer · Nov 3, 2016

Life progresses. We lose skills and we gain new skills. Specialization grows. A lot of us use things every day that we can't even repair let alone manufacture. Change does seem to happen faster today, but I suspect that people have felt that way many times in the past as well.

The skills our children are learning today are different than the ones I learned. But they will be important to their future. At least we hope so. Sudden reverses backwards do not really mean "happy times are back" though many seem to have fond nostalgic memories that ignore the bad. For example, people seem to be fond of maligning the high cost of medical care, but that cost has also brought huge advances in our life expectancy.

Sirius Glass · Nov 3, 2016

Technical advancements have two sides: nuclear energy can be used to heal and generate power or to destroy, as an example. GPS has real traffic updates and can to some degree locate places using the search function [some times it does not get one what they want], however as one depends on the GPS finding ones way, one can lose the ability for learn the route. One should learn how to get to certain places without depending on a GPS.

Mainecoonmaniac · Nov 3, 2016

Sirius Glass said:
One should learn how to get to certain places without depending on a GPS.

I agree. Take a look at Polynesians able to navigate the ocean without charts, compass nor GPS.

Dead Link Removed

This skill was almost lost.

Sirius Glass · Nov 3, 2016

I can get lost faster and better by myself than I can with a GPS. The GPS is able to get me really lost sometimes.

dpurdy · Nov 3, 2016

I would say that the driving force for creating new technology has always been to reduce the need for human functions. Even the old saying that Kodak came up with, "you push the button and we do the rest". It has come to be very appealing to people who don't want to have to think about things they are dealing with. It is mostly a choice people make, along with quite a lot of clever marketing to help them think they need new stuff.
We don't have to partake in any of the mind shutting. I for one have yet to get a cell phone, I drive a 1979 model car with nothing automatic. When the news paper here became crap I started to spend my waking up time on the computer reading online news and various forums. After awhile I realized I was being negatively affected by starting the day sitting at a computer and so now and for a few years I start my day drinking coffee and staring out a window and thinking about anything I want to think about.

Old-N-Feeble · Nov 3, 2016

I no longer own a cell phone either, dpurdy. Once I could no longer work I had no reason to keep paying the monthly fee which was only $13 per month. I only drive to town about once per week and I have MagicJack at home. I never saw the need nor had a desire for all the gadgets on fancy expensive cell phones. The only one I ever owned had no games, no camera, no video, no internet... just basic voice. I never wanted anything more in a portable phone. I may just be an old fuddy-duddy cheapskate but that's how I see it. To top it off, I see (as a cell phone outsider) that those who finger-F their phones while in a social situation are rudely ignoring their so-called 'friends'. That's just plane rude even if their friends are 'boring' them.

Thomas Bertilsson · Nov 3, 2016

dpurdy said:
After awhile I realized I was being negatively affected by starting the day sitting at a computer and so now and for a few years I start my day drinking coffee and staring out a window and thinking about anything I want to think about.

I find that by viewing social media and news online, my thoughts are to a degree steered by others. Those mornings when I leave bed to go feed cats, make coffee, and get some breakfast without any iGadget intervention, are the ones where I accomplish the most and feel the most relaxed.
Once I'm done with school and graduate in a few weeks, I won't have to use a computer or electronic device at home at all, so that will be an interesting experience, and I hope a good one too.

To the OP - technology is largely an enabler, but I think it's mostly an enabler for money making. I don't think the world needs more money makers, but we need those who are thoughtful, who are healers, and can help steer our minds back to being closer to the natural world that we so desperately need to survive. The further we drift into alternative realities, the further we drift from the natural world. It is, the way I see it, a dangerous trend.

Halford · Nov 4, 2016

I think it's up to us. Technology can free us from some kinds of things that we used to have to spend brain and/or muscle power on. Now -- what do you do with those resources you have freed? Instead of memorising phone numbers, do you do and spend that intellectual effort on being more creative, or do you watch another episode of Netflix's latest?

And you can have a bit of both :-D

zanxion72 · Nov 4, 2016

Anything that does things that one should be doing by himself is killing one's instincts and intuition related to no longer performed activity. Instincts and intuition are evolved around experience and learning to predict the near future out of certain conditions. When letting others do things you should be doing you loose these abilities inevitably.

LAG · Nov 4, 2016

Excuse me

IMO, instruments and/or technical methods can be at our disposal, but it is in our brains (& emotions) that there must be something else. Useful, is not always necessarily and directly associated with technology.

Is not "killing", it is more like a "putting" aside, perhaps. So, like someone said before, is not about technology, is about us. Gut instinct, intuition and even the above mentioned "creativity" are always there, they show up at any time out of the blue, in many different ways, away from the tool/s needed or used.

The word "Smart" should never leave the "human being" side.

Thomas Bertilsson · Nov 4, 2016

Quoting David Vestal:

"Compensating for lack of skill with technology is progress toward mediocrity.
As technology advances, craftsmanship recedes.
As technology increases our possibilities, we use them less resourcefully.
The one thing we've gained is spontaneity, which is useless without perception."

I thought it was pertinent to this thread to offer his view. I don't agree with it 100%, but I think it adds to the discussion.
In reality, I think we're individuals along a spectrum of how useful we think technology is. Some people make technology work for them and they do amazing things with it.
Others shun it like the plague and want nothing to do with it, not because they're less intelligent, but probably because it doesn't suit their lifestyles and how they operate.
Most of us are somewhere in between.

markbarendt · Nov 4, 2016

Our gut instincts are only valuable in the absence of real knowledge. If we can gather the right info and do the math we may be better off to ignore our guts.

Is technology killing our gut instincts and intuition?

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