What Is Your Digital Age Device Boundary, A Technology You Refuse To Explore?

What is the boundary of your Digital Age device exploration? In other words, what is the type of technology you simply refuse to begin using regardless of its popularity or ubiquity?

Is it a smartphone? An iPad? FaceTime? Social media? Fitbit? Apple Watch? The options, or boundaries, are truly endless as technology catapults into each new day.

My boundary may be the Alexa-type, voice-controlled virtual assistants that are all the rage in hipster households, such as my daughter’s home. She and her husband use it throughout the day, asking Alexa to play this song or that song, and at different volume levels. These days, it’s mostly for children’s songs to entertain and educate my baby Ghuttus. .

NS"s 26-month-old baby Ghuttus, attempts to activate his home's voice-controlled Alexa virtual assistant device.

At 26 months, he’s already looking at the device and attempting to yell out Alexa’s name to prompt more songs. He’s already more advanced than I am with this product. I’ve never spoken Alexa’s or any virtual assistant’s name in any home. I don’t envision me doing this someday for convenience, though I may have to use it out of necessity.

I know a few older or disabled people who depend on these inexpensive voice-activated devices to perform simple tasks such as playing music, turning on a light, or answering a question, possibly like “Alexa, will Kim ever start using you?”

Nope. Not now, I tell myself. But who knows. I once had the same stance against smartphones. At my rising age and lowering metabolism, I have no interest in a virtual assistant to save me from any physical activity. Orone with the concerning capability of eavesdropping on every conversation in my home.

Choosing to use these devices on a daily basis forces us to choose between privacy and convenience. Which do you value more? I tend to lean toward the latter, like most everyone else, despite our repeated complaints about losing our privacy. We didn’t lose it. We gave it away. And most of us continue to do so.

We give away our personal information to corporations like we give personal advice to loved ones. The first group covets it. The second group ignores it. Digital technology never sleeps. It’s always listening. Always interested. Always evolving.

Havells's portable Freshia Mini Air Purfier, on display at the annual consumer electronics show in New Delhi, works on an eight-hour battery.

Look no further than the recent annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2020) in Las Vegas, showcasing more than 4,500 companies. It’s one of the biggest tech shows in the world, featuring the latest breakouts in new technology with every imaginable gadget, concept, robot, device, and totally impractical appliances.

For example, an 8K QLED television for $7,000 although there likely isn’t enough streaming content available at that resolution. Anyone? Or personal air purifiers with eight-hour battery life. Is this a pampered luxury or a perceived necessity? Or how about a self-propelled suitcase to shadow you through an airport using a camera, wristband, and facial recognition. Silly or practical? (Read a review of the show and its most popular products.)

Some of the show’s products seem like science fiction, or what we dreamed about as kids. The best examples are real-time “brain-sensing” wearable devices that allow you to control your digital world with only your thoughts. These are all part of a fast-growing neuro-technology industry specializing in hands-free interfaces for real-time interaction.

A related product is a headband to wear during your wakeful hours to train your brain so you can sleep easier at night. Another one tracks sleep cycles so you can alter your own behavior, designed to be used three times a week for 20 minutes. Is this a brilliant innovation or snake oil hogwash?

Another popular trend is the smart-speaker market, including Google Home, Amazon Echo, and Belkin’s new Soundform Elite, offering a wireless charger for certain smartphones.

If you’re the type of person who insists on keeping up with the tech-friendly Joneses, you may be intrigued by these products. If you’re not, you’re probably laughing at them The sky is not only the limit, figuratively, for most of these consumer goods, the sky’s satellite technology is crucial to their success.

As I look around my home, I see digital technology in every room. It has gradually accumulated everywhere, like dust or bad carpeting. I now own a desktop computer, a laptop computer, an iPad, an iPhone, and a junk drawer graveyard of old devices, charging cords, and related items whose purposes I’ve long forgotten.

A daunting portion of my personal and professional lives exist in a digital cloud I barely understand. I have no idea where it’s located in the physical world. It’s like trying to pinpoint the whereabouts of love or God. I’m not sure if I should look up, point into my computer, or search in my settings feature.

Patrons check out the latest NXP semiconductor "Automotive Network Processor" during the consumer electronics show in Las Vegas.

The biggest upside about cutting-edge technology is that you don’t have to thoroughly understand how it works to use it. Simply plug it in, read the instructions, give it a go and learn along the way. The same method once applied for using a record turntable, a television VCR, and an 8-mm movie projector we aimed at a blank wall.

Those products also once intimidated us or confounded us, or both, until we eventually mastered them.

Adapting to new technology is about attitude, not aptitude. Look at all the younger people in your life who casually use an arsenal of digital products, yet who need to be reminded to put gas in their car, or comb their hair, or say “thank you” when you buy them the newest gadgetry.

And then there are Luddites like me who has never used my iPhone’s built-in assistant, Siri, although I probably should. The tool is just a thumb-click away. For this column, I asked Siri my first question: “Why don’t I ever use you?”

“I’m not sure I understand,” Siri replied.