Life gets more and more complicated. We dive head first, eyes closed, into the pool of Artificial Intelligence… and expect to come out smarter. So everybody has to go to college. (It only hurts when I laugh.)
I got through the “higher education” stuff okay, but coping with all this technology has me talking to myself.
I need a miracle.
I am personally convinced that tech overload is becoming a huge problem, not just for average people, but also for tech workers.
As an initial posit, the human brain can only handle so many things, at once. If you place someone in a lab where warning lights flash, or warning buzzers sound, and all it requires is to push a button to silence or darken the warning, and increase the frequency of the simulated warnings, there will come a point where the test subject cannot keep up. Now, some people are able to handle more than others, but even astronauts and test pilots can become overloaded.
And that’s where many of us find ourselves, with constant reminders and messages popping up on our phones, email inboxes, etc. I have personally seen IT people who did not understand the network topology they managed, and as admins resign, and replacements are hired, and literally no one currently on staff has any idea of the design philosophy of the system they manage. When this situation happens, managing becomes a game of Whack-a-Mole, with admins swatting down whatever problems come along, without ever truly comprehending the full picture.
It is my estimation that this is becoming the rule, and not the exception, in many places. Might I suggest that this well explains the shortcomings of WordPress. Their inability to effectively address their AAA problems screams to my consciousness that no one their fully understands the Authentication, Authorization and Accounting process on their system.
But it’s true for all of us, in our individual lives. While I was standing in line for lunch, my medical insurance company decided that they needed some of my time and attention. It was an unwelcome, and unnecessary intrusion. I pay my premiums, you pay the claims and leave me the hell alone, Insurance Company. They make a fortune off of a guy that has an annual checkup, an annual eye exam and the occasional cheap, generic prescription refill. But I digress.
We need to use tech, where tech helps, but we need to eschew it in other areas of life.
The more capable (ahem!) the tech gets, the less capable we get.
It has come to the point of overwhelming our senses.