I am not anti-technology. The cell-phone, Garmin Navigation System, and vaccinations have all led to significant improvements in my life (smoother airport pick-ups, ability to more quickly locate the nearest Dairy Queen, less small pox).
But not all technology results in a net gain in happiness. Here for example are three technologies that have done nothing to make me happier:
1. HDTV It’s not that it doesn’t look great. It’s just, I never once remember watching TV thinking, “Man, I wish I could see this guy’s forehead sweat more clearly.” I was happy with TV. I assumed it was about as clear as can be. Now, you watch something in HDTV and it makes regular TV look like a fifth-grader scribbled some blobby crayon-figures all over your TV screen. The bar has been needlessly raised. HDTV doesn’t make TV better, it just makes non HDTV worse.
2. Digital Picture Frames: Just because it can be digital, doesn’t mean it should be. The main problem is this–do you leave it on all the time, thus wasting electricity and keeping you up at night as it weirdly scrolls through 623 pictures of you posing in front of empty beer bottles? Or do you turn it off at night and when you go out? But if you don’t leave it on all the time, you have to remember to turn it on every day. Which is also weird because now you’re making this conscious choice to say: “Gee, I really want to look at those pictures of myself today.” So, it becomes like this constant decision making process–do you turn on the pictures today or not? Suddenly, something that took not a second of my time before is demanding precious energy from me every single day.
3. Ununspetium – When element number 117 was discovered back in January, I was stoked. I figured the target-projective combinations leading to z=117 compound nuclei would really change the way I viewed the halogen family as a whole. But to be honest, this whole element has been a huge disappointment so far. Copernicium it ‘aint.