As I sit in my bedroom typing this post, my three other housemates also sitting in their individual rooms, all due to activities that related to one thing, the internet. The rollout of the NBN has generated some very mixed reviews whenever brought up, as I guess all technology does though. I have obviously found the most varied opinions have stemmed from different age brackets. To gauge an in-depth response I gathered the thoughts of my always knowledgeable Dad, my 17 year old younger brother, and my three housemates who all study and work in different fields.
When talking to the older generations, I feel like there is an increasing fear of technology and the way humans socially interact. As Sherry Turkle summarises it in her TED talk, people are becoming comfortable being “together while not being together, we’re getting used to a new way of being alone together”, and this is reason parts of society are scared for the future and the way technology could affect the world as a whole.
It’s not all doom and gloom though, as I have vehemently argued in a blog post a few weeks back which you can find here, and also as I found out through some of the opinions raised by people around me.
What are your thoughts, do you think this is the way we are heading?
Beginning with my Dad, who is an electrician and has a surprisingly broad knowledge of technology that he has managed to teach himself, he stated that he was excited at the prospect of the NBN a few years back. Unfortunately, since then receiving personal reviews from friends he stated that “it doesn’t sound that much better than the current broadband network, and he would have to be convinced again about it.”
Some of the downfalls he listed were obviously the fact that it will be more expensive, as he is involved in supporting a family. He also doesn’t like the fact that you lose your original telecom phone system in the process. As a person who was originally involved in the installation of these networks, he knows a thing or two about their benefits.
The original phone system used to work even if you had a power failure, whereas the new NBN related phone system require power in your house for it to work. Yes, you can argue about planning ahead with back-up batteries, but realistically how many times have we been too lazy to plan ahead? This was something I had never considered outside the core conversation on the internet component, and is something that could pose real threats during events such as a natural disaster.
When asked about the impact on work, there were a few, but none he was necessarily too concerned about. As my Father is currently an electrician/technician for Australia Post, a knock-on effect of the increased internet speed could mean a further spike in online shopping. Whilst not directly affecting him personally, that would mean increased work and sales for the business he works for due to the number of parcels being sent, but at the same time it could also affect the business negatively. The increased speed may also encourage further online communication, potentially decreasing the number of letters sent through Australia Post, a juxtaposition I found quite interesting.
As an additional recent owner of a small Camper-Trailer hire business, my Mum and himself had to learn online marketing techniques that could be done in affordable ways to get the business established. Dad and I both recognised the vast advantages the NBN could further have on maintaining small businesses, something I also discussed in the aforementioned post.
With the most important thing being family to him, he didn’t feel like it would have much different impact to what the internet already has now, as no one in the family has real interests in watching movies or sport, and everyone still does give full technological- free attention to each other at times currently. Furthermore, he believed it could have a positive social impact, an opinion that seemed to be very uncommon to the other Fathers of my friends that I have spoken too. With all of his siblings living in various locations across the country, he believes that Skype and other web-based chats could become more convenient and easier to keep up to date with each other’s lives.
However, on the topic of family, he did mention a personal experience of his Aunty who resides in Kiama, one of the locations who have already received the roll out. As she is an older woman, she has seen the benefit of this as some of the younger residents may have, finding a new phone plan that was being forced to finish and generally finding the whole experience confusing. This is something I imagine to be the case with a lot of the older generation across the country.
(Do you feel the rollout of the NBN could contribute to this being the norm within society?)
My housemates raised a few interesting points, one who works in digital media field can see the upside of quicker uploading and downloading time would mean that it would be more feasible to send files to bosses and clients digitally. This is more productive and cost-effective, but obviously being forced to physically give a USB of the files to another human is something that forces a social interaction.
Another side-related note was on the topic of potential medical examinations via video conference. It was pointed out was that medical appointments are often deeply personal things, and these would use the medium of the internet. As we all know, there is a distinct lack of privacy on the internet and you never know who can access your information! This is something that older people, the group that are meant to be receiving the main benefit (such as the elderly woman in the NBN advertisement) are even more frightened of.
My journalist housemate didn’t foresee any huge impacts, but still acknowledges some on his work life. As he works in magazine publications and always hopes too, there has obviously been a shift of moving publications online with the rise of internet usage. This is dramatically changing the relationship between the media and the audience, as the experience of consuming a tangible magazine is very different to the online version, the only fear he had was the majority of magazines moving online due to the further increased internet speed.
This reads as a man of the older generations being afraid of technology, where he actually was a notorious con artist in the 1960’s, explaining the different impact technology (and of course the NBN) would have had on his circumstances.
In relation to communicating, as he already tries to always call others where possible, as it is a more personable approach, he pointed out that just because you may be able to send an email a little faster than before isn’t going to make him or many others convert to emails for their main choice of contact. My younger brother really hadn’t given any thought to the benefits of the NBN, which was interesting in itself, but was most concerned with the environmental impacts the process of the roll out will have.
I think the positives and negatives of technological advancements are always going to come down to benefits it has for business prospects, and the negative impacts it CAN have on social interaction. What you personally draw out of these I believe is entirely individual to everyone’s own situation and ultimately up to you.
References:
Turkle, S. 2012, Connected, but alone?, TED, viewed 20 August 2014, <http://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together/transcript>
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