As technology first began to manifest in the world, it served as a means for humankind’s domination over nature (despite what Heidegger may say). Our first technologies, things such as gardening tools, helped early humans make use of their surrounding environment better than was before possible. Further and further innovations have been made in the name of technological advance to supposedly help humans reign over the natural world. However, in the modern era, this view of technology has ceased to be true; technology in many cases serves as an impediment to human flourishing in two ways: firstly, by taking up more and more time as it is made more attractive; and secondly, by becoming a forced convenience – rather than being an optional tool one can take up to alter their environment, humans are forced by the circumstances of the day to use technology in a way that makes it no more liberating that the natural human was prior to technology.

It has been said that “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” and in the case of technology, this is most certainly true. For each technological advance made, it is possible to highlight how it was meant to help improve the human condition. However, technology has simply become too good and too attractive and has, resultantly, served as an impediment to flourishing.

Consider some of the more modern technological advances made – the Internet, the television and social media. It is easy to envision exactly how these technologies could help man to flourish – all of them serves as ways of ‘shrinking the globe’ and bringing peoples closer together than was before possible. Previously, it was only possible to communicate with an individual in a different geographical location (think a different continent) through some sort of physical mailing system. This process was tedious and slow, taking weeks or even months for mail to reach its destination and then even more time to receive some sort of reply; if some matter was urgent, this was simply not suitable. With the invention of Internet and social media, it is possible to digitally mail or message another individual in a matter of seconds. With the television, it is possible to communicate a message to almost everyone across the globe quickly and efficiently – an impossibility for much of humankind’s existence. These are serious benefits and if this was how the technologies were used, their existence would be immensely beneficial.

However, technologies are often not (and probably most often not) used in the ways they are most beneficial. Rather than use social media to connect individuals, it is often used mindlessly as a form of low entertainment. Services like Instagram (which might?) have potentially beneficial uses is instead used for corporate advertising and the dissemination of memes. Television, instead of being an easy way to inform the world is again, often used as mere entertainment. Rather than use our televisions to educate ourselves on the happenings of the world, often we succumb to an incessant urge to watch mindlessly entertaining shows, either on cable or streaming services such as Netflix.

Used in these ways, technology becomes an impediment to flourishing. Rather than develop our skills, cultivate relationships or educate ourselves someway, we are drawn into the incessant use of technology for low, mindless pleasure. Certainly human flourishing does not consist in hours of scrolling of social media and season after season of television shows, however, this is how these technologies are employed. Furthermore, these technologies have addictive tendencies, further pulling individuals into the wormhole of Usage. So, rather than having these technologies serve as some sort of liberatory device, they serve the opposite purpose by repressing human flourishing and promoting lowly pleasure.

To advance to the second point, that of technology becoming a forced convenience rather than a liberatory device in other realms, consider the case of the automobile. The automobile made land travel both more efficient and convenient for individuals than ever before. While alternative technology such as trains existed previously, the individual nature of the automobile made both short-distance and long-distance travel easier than ever before. Whereas individuals were previously constrained by the availability and routes of things such as trains, with the automobile they were able to autonomously dictate all of intricacies of their travel.

However, an unseen consequence of the invention of the automobile was suburban sprawl. While suburban sprawl has bad consequences for the environment and socioeconomic segregation, I mainly want to focus on the consequences for the individual. While the car once liberated individuals by allowing them to travel more conveniently and efficiently, due to decentralization and suburban sprawl, automobiles have devolved from a device of convenience to a device of necessity; instead of being an optional purchase that would make one’s life a bit easier and provide some higher amount of command over the environment, the invention of the automobile has altered the environment such that now it provides no benefit. Whereas previously it was largely optional to own an automobile, it has now largely become a necessity. Consider your circle of associates – how many, if any at all, do not have some sort of automobile? The answer is likely very few. This is due to the fact that suburban sprawl and decentralization has reduced the ability that was previously available to us of opting to walk or use something like a bicycle to reach our destination.

Now, given how vast the area that cities cover has become, these options are possibly available, but only at a drastically reduced level of convenience. Without the automobile, it is easy to imagine that suburban communities would not exist and instead everything would be much more centralized – large apartments that would be centrally located rather than large suburban communities isolated from the rest of the city. Rather than allow us to dominate our environment, the invention of some technologies, such as the automobile, are not an improvement in our command over nature as we have adapted to the technology in a way that minimalizes the benefit that it initially provided.

Given how far technology has strayed from what it was supposed to be, what is to be done? While it is no simple fix, one possible route is to limit the constraints technology places on our own lives. Steer clear of the time-trap that is television and Internet (social media is specific, although this is easier said than done) and live in such a way that does not force technology on us, perhaps by choosing a living area that allows for alternative transport, rather than requiring the purchase of a vehicle. For those interested in taking the former route suggested, a great book titled Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport outlines a philosophical case for, and practical steps to achieve liberation from time-trap technologies. It is important to remember what technology is supposed to be and utilize it in that way, rather than simply succumbing to its pressures. While this is certainly easier said than done, in order to fully take one’s life back into their own hands, it is necessary to only use technology in ways that are beneficial, rather than the ways that are imposed on us.