I just watched a car\ncommercial during a TV show; not sure who sponsored the ad (number one sign of\na bad commercial by the way) but the song was \u201cTurn Around, Look at Me\u201d by the\nVogues, a great song and sad to hear it in a car commercial (although I\nunderstand why they chose it). The song, however, is not the point of this\npost. Rather it concerns the product itself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whatever car it was\nthat they were selling features a backup camera. I know, nothing new there,\nmany car makers now have a rear view camera. But this one was a special back up\ncamera as it warns the driver if there is something in the rear zone. In this\ncase it was a human inattentively walking head down texting on his phone. The\ndriver did not see him, but happily, the car did and then signaled an alert to\nthe driver. I am unclear on whether the driver applied the brakes or if the car\ndid it automatically, but regardless of who or how, the brakes were applied and\nthe teenager strolled on, obliviously. So \u201cyay\u201d for technology \u2013 saved the day!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ll need to look for this ad again to study the driver\u2019s actions during all of this, but my recollection is that the driver glances in the rear-view mirror while beginning to back out of the driveway. I do not recall a head turn to look in the side mirrors and certainly no full head pivot to look over either shoulder prior to backing out. To me this portrayed an extremely lax and careless driver \u2013 reckless even. Who backs up a car without looking all around you before doing so? Especially in a driveway crossing a sidewalk and into a street? The walking teenager was in full and immediate view throughout the whole incident and in fact, a modest head turn to the left by the driver would have revealed his presence. But \u201cyay\u201d for technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sorry, but not in the\neyes of this old Wolff. This is what we are doing to ourselves and especially\nto our young \u2013 we are compensating for poor or inadequate skills with\ntechnology. I know, I know \u2013 it\u2019s just a commercial. Got it. But we are all still\ntaught (I assume, I hope) in Driver\u2019s Ed to look over both shoulders, check\nboth side mirrors, and the rear mirror before initiating any movement of the\nautomobile. Evaluating and understanding the envelope around your car before\n(and while) operating it is Driving 101. But rather than fix the problem, which\nmay be distracted drivers or poor driver training, we insert technology to\ncompensate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Don\u2019t get me wrong \u2013\nI am a huge fan of insertion of technology \u2013 it was my job for over ten years\nand I installed thousands of sensors to monitor dozens of different plant\nsystems: steam and boilers, yard air and compressors, electrical power voltage\nand phase balance, and countless other examples. But it was not done to\ncompensate for poorly trained or inattentive maintenance personnel. It was\nmeant to provide 24\/7 continuous monitoring that we could never have done with\npeople. The technology was a tool to allow them to cover more area, take\nbreaks, perform repairs, and so forth. But in the case of this car commercial,\nit is because the driver never even made the effort to look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And this is not an\nisolated application of technology meant to compensate for humans. There are\nsensors that monitor the areas along the sides of your car so that if you begin\nto move into another lane already occupied by another vehicle, it alerts you.\nNice. Really \u2013 that is a nice feature. But if you are truly driving as you were\ntaught and as you are expected to as a licensed driver, you should always know\nwhere all the cars are around yours. And before moving that two ton mass of\nmetal traveling at 70MPH into another lane, you are expected to look for \u2013 and\nto see \u2013 the car next to you; before being the operative word. But as we all\nknow, people don\u2019t often look, they seem to assume that a turn signal is\nsufficient. And if there is someone there, they seem to assume that their turn\nsignal should alert the other driver to get out of the way. Looking? Doesn\u2019t\nseem to be a popular method these days. So let\u2019s design a sensor to compensate\nfor these drivers. And there are a number of similar technological insertions\nto cars out there right now, including one that I think can parallel park the\ncar itself without driver intervention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why are these things\nbad if they can help make driving safer? Well, of course they are not; not as\nlong as the root cause of the problem is being addressed: driver carelessness\nand poor driving. But that is not the case. I think they are actually dumbing\ndown the Driver\u2019s Ed curriculum in some states. Bad move. Back in the 70\u2019s a\ngasoline company, Shell I think, did a great job promulgating safe driving tips\nand general rules of the road. I recall little booklets as well as TV\ncommercials, all providing valuable lessons on safe and proper driving methods.\nWith today\u2019s web access essentially anytime and anyplace you would have to\nthink that getting out safe driving information would be next to effortless,\nespecially apps on a phone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking of cars and\nphones, I am astonished that they have not implemented a system that \u201cblacks\nout\u201d phone signal while the car is moving. We certainly have the technology to\ndo so, apparently just not the balls to do so. Shut down texts and emails and\ncalls whenever the car is running and moving, simple. My state is hand\u2019s free\nand has been so for a while. Yet I am hard pressed to drive for more than five\nminutes and not see someone holding a phone while driving. And yes, I know I\njust contradicted the whole thrust of my message in this post with this\nparagraph. But it really drives to the crux of the issue; it is easier to\ncompensate for bad behavior with technology than it is to correct the problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s take the leap\nfrom cars to phones, although actually they are far more than phones as we all\nknow. They are web browsers, email devices, cameras, clock, calendars,\ncalculators, and a hundred more things \u2013 mine can be used as a level and can\nsupposedly measure as well. And that is an impressive use of technology. But at\nwhat cost? I don\u2019t want to sound like the typical boomer here, but from what I\nhave witnessed over the last ten years, society\u2019s ability to perform basic\ntasks have seriously eroded. People can\u2019t spell their way out of a paper bag\nanymore, they rely on spell check to do that for them. I fell prey to that\nmyself, misspelling a word while typing and when the squiggly red line appears\nunder the word I would merely right-click to select the correct spelling. And\nthat simple action began to undermine my spelling ability to the point where I\nnoticed my decline. I now will go back and retype a misspelled word as many\ntimes as it takes in order to spell it correctly myself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Math. I am not sure\nhow many people are left on this earth that can make change for a $17.97 sale\nwhen handed a $20 bill, but the number will be decidedly in the minority. Many\npeople can no longer perform simple math without a phone or a calculator (or\nthe cash register to do it for them). I have been in stores when the power went\nout and even though I had cash, they refused to complete the sale. When\npressed, the response I got was that the store had no confidence that the\ncashiers could do the math and make change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And let\u2019s not even go\ninto texting, an activity which promotes abbreviations and shortcuts in both\nspelling and grammar. Now we are texting with emoticons and emoji\u2019s \u2013 basically\nusing pictures and symbols for words. We are going back to hieroglyphics!!\nFunny, but sad. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I need to pause here\nfor a moment to emphatically state that I DO know there are some extremely\nbright and intelligent young people out there, all of whom can do math in their\nhead, write properly spelled words \u2013 neatly \u2013 in cursive, and can write a\nformal letter, on paper. And they probably look over their shoulders when they\nback out of driveways! I am not singling out young people here and I am\ngrouping any generation into a pigeon holed condemnation. Not at all; this\nspans all generations and ages. I am writing about how technology has made it\neasy for anybody using it to become lazy, lax, or generally lose our edge.\nBoomers, Gen-X, Millennials, and any and all other generations; technology has\nbecome a crutch for all who use it. The thing with a crutch is that it is meant\nto be temporary, only used when needed. But we rely on our technological\ncrutches constantly and that can and will leave us \u201cwalking\u201d with a permanent\nlimp due to diminished and lost skills. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some would (and do)\nargue that this is progress \u2013 evolution. This new society does not need to know\nhow to spell or do math. They don\u2019t need cursive either. In the words of Zager\nand Evans: \u201c\u2026some machine is doing that for you\u2026\u201d Their bleak vision of\nmankind\u2019s future may not have been completely off target. But beyond that, the\nact of using your brain to spell a word or to do math in your head stimulates\nspecific regions of the brain. And those areas will grow withered and emaciated\nfrom lack of stimulation. So what, some say; the brain will repurpose those\nareas for other things than spelling and math. And while that may be true,\ngiven the intricate and complex engineering of our brains, that repurposing of\nthose areas may not have the same positive effects on the health of our brains.\nResearch has demonstrated that regular exercise of these areas used for\nspelling and math may help stave off future onset of dementia or Alzheimer\u2019s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Humankind took,\ndragged, itself out of the caves and beds of leaves by continuously learning\nand developing new skills. We learned language \u2013 how to read and write; we\nlearned math and physics \u2013 how to measure and build; we learned and we grew.\nAnd we created tools and new technology to give us more time to do other\nthings, there are literally thousands upon thousands of examples. It used to\ntake a person hours to do the laundry between the washing and drying, and much\nof that time was hands on labor. Now we throw the clothes into a machine, press\na button, and walk away. If you have ever drilled a hole with a hand brace\nyou\u2019ll know how much time an electric drill saves. Cutting wood with a hand saw\nversus chainsaw or table saw. Going to see your grandparents on horseback\nversus a car or plane. No need to go on, you get it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We have grown a\nculture, as a race of people, by learning and inserting new technology to make\nour lives better. And there are definitely some skills we\u2019ve lost due to new\ntechnology that we\u2019ll never look back and wish we hadn\u2019t. But reading, writing,\narithmetic? Those dear reader, are skills we dare not lose. Helping a driver\nsee a kid behind them while backing up is truly awesome, as is spotting a car\nin the lane next to you. But we can\u2019t allow ourselves to come to rely on the\ntechnology, leaving us with a loss of skills. As with so much of life,\ntechnology is a double edged sword and while capable of making us safer or\nfreeing us from menial tasks, it comes with the risk that we can become weaker\nfrom it. Balance folks, it always comes back to balance! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I just watched a car commercial during a TV show; not sure who sponsored the ad (number one sign of a bad commercial by the way) but the song was \u201cTurn Around, Look at Me\u201d by the Vogues, a great song and sad to hear it in a car commercial (although I understand why they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"ocean_front_end_style_editor":"no","ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"0","ocean_second_sidebar":"0","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"0","ocean_custom_header_template":"0","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"0","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"off","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humanity","entry","has-media"],"yoast_head":"\n