Entry #3: Technology and Troubles

Hello once again Reader! With today's blog post, I'll be sharing some ideas about a certain scene from the Disney movie, WALL-E. This movie revolves around a robot of the same name and takes place in the distant future where people have advanced robots that can do most, if not all, the things people need done. As a result, people pretty much don't have to "get up" and do anything anymore. Now, there's more to this movie, but I'm going to be focusing on this aspect of it.


In one part of the scene I'm referring to, there is a man with a drink in his hand, sitting in a hi-tech floating chair which was carrying him around, just like everyone else in that area. When he was done with his drink, he wanted WALL-E, who happened to be there, to get rid of the cup for him, but in the process of reaching it to WALL-E, the man falls off the chair and he couldn't (or wouldn't) get back on. He then starts calling out for robots to put him back up into the chair.

What that instance tells me is how that person has grown totally reliant on technology that even such a simple task as getting up into a chair seemed like such an impossible task for him. An analogy could be made between that man and a lot of us today. A lot of people today have grown so reliant on technology (not necessarily as much as with the man in the example though).

If you consider for instance how devastating extended periods of power loss is to some communities, you'd see how our ways of life have been shaped by the availability of such conveniences afforded by different technologiess. A lot of us might not be able to prepare meals for ourselves if microwaves were suddenly made unavailable to us. That would indeed be devastating since we wouldn't be able to properly satisfy one fundamental requirement for life. (I know that it's a pretty shallow example, but I hope I was able to properly convey the point I was getting at.) That's only one of many problems that could result from our growing reliance on technology.


Another part of the scene has a woman sitting on one of those chairs as well. She had her face "stuck" to a hi-tech hologram (?) of a screen positioned in front of her, and she was video chatting with another person. WALL-E then tries to grab her attention and in the process disables the screen. With the screen out of the way, the woman notices the view of the city in front of her and appears awestruck, maybe as if she hasn't ever noticed how the city looked like before.

This instance goes to show how we can get so absorbed with certain technologies. For instance, since certain electronic devices can allows us to communicate with others so easily, we can sometimes just stay wherever and use these devices constantly. We aren't as compelled to go out and leave our houses, and sometimes even our rooms, anymore because it's not as necessary anymore in order to socialize with others.

As a result, we can lose sight of our surroundings. I can relate to this as I tend to frequently use different technological devices like computers and TV's. I remember a time after one Winter. A tree right outside my house previously shed it's leaves for Winter. I still thought it had no leaves at all yet. One time though, I went out of the house which I didn't do too often during that time, and I was surprised to see that the treed had a full head of green leaves. It takes sometime for a tree to grow back that many leaves. If I had gone out more often to walk or play sports maybe, I probably would've noticed it growing leaves gradually. That just goes to show how unaware I was of things around me due to me not being compelled to go out much since I had "all I needed" (technology) in my own home.

Another probably more important thing is that a lot of us don't get as much exercise anymore. This is a troubling issue since it's one that affects our physical well-beings. Different illnesses and conditions can arise from the lack of exercise. For one thing, obesity has been a big problem for many children. One major reason for this is probably the availability of different technologies they have available at home. Kids could just watch TV and/or play video games at home instead of playing games involving a lot more physical activity.


Another observation that could be made from the two instances I gave from the movie is that though there were a lot of people on the streets where they were being carried by their hi-tech chairs, most of them, if any at all, weren't paying any attention at all to those around them. Technological devices can be so attention-grabbing that we can end up just paying attention to them most of the times instead of people around us, be those family members, friends, etc. Though technology may allows us to connect with a lot of people whom we otherwise might not be able to communicate with, having it can also cause us to "lose connection" or grow indifferent with those around us, who, sometimes, should matter more to us.


Well, that's it for this blog post. As always, thank you for reading through it and I hope you liked it! Till next time... :-)