Simplicity or Complexity?

Oh! we are so lucky to be in an era where tasks are quickly completed. Thanks to those innovative developers who made our lives easier, we seem to be saving lot of time with these software systems or solutions. Products like Excel, Word or PowerPoint with which we are able to maintain, update or delete records, generate reports from our data. And also, our data is so organized. But are we really saving time? When compared with the people of 60s to the people in 21st century, they had more time when compared to us. They had enough time even after using manual registers to maintain records. Is technology simplifying or making it more complex?

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Time less consumed to carry out an operation does not mean that the operation is simple. It also depends on the expertise of the individual who is carrying out that operation. However, the point to notice here is “Are we moving towards simplicity?”

Time consumption has increased because those complex operations are much easier now but the number of operations have increased. Consider talking to your family a decade back. You used to call your wife once in a day while at work when you had to go to the receptionist to make a call. Or you use to call once in a week or once in a month when you were abroad. Now things are simple, you are just a text away from your family. So, you contact them more often, maybe 10 times a day. This consumes your time. Though the technology has made it simple but you are using it more often.

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With this ease of reach we have developed the habit of forgetting, we are now habituated to forget things. We forget to say something on call, we quickly call them back. We forget to carry the important file to office, we download from cloud and print it. We forget to complete the presentation and we complete that on our way to office. We don’t remember birthdays anymore, it is the Outlook calendar or Facebook that reminds us about the birthdays. We don’t remember any telephone numbers, it is all there in phone book. This has also made a person more and more dependent on technology. Its high time for people to understand the limitations of technology and keep it as simple or as minimal as they can.

Technology is simplifying our lives, only if we knew how to use it rather than abusing it.