“What is the best use of technology?”
This question is increasingly raised as the pace of technological change accelerates. More speed, power, interconnection, etc. can produce all kinds of obvious benefits. We visit distant places quickly and cheaply thanks to jet planes. We have access to reliable and cheap electricity in our homes and cars. With the computer revolution, we can create, manage, transfer and store large amounts of data in a way that would have been unimaginable for previous generations.
But with these advantages came very serious disadvantages. The jet that can take you to Hawaii or Paris can also be used to kill thousands of people and inflict billions of dollars in damage. Cheap electricity is often generated by polluting and unsafe plants. Computer and Internet technology can be used to invade privacy and spread false information around the world at the click of a mouse.
“What is the best use of technology?” is certainly an important issue, which probably deserves a lot more attention. But there is another related question, rarely asked, that can ultimately be much more important:
“How can we best use it as we live our lives using these new technologies?”
Take our interaction with computers. I saw for the first time that computers were commonly used in the mid-1960s by ticket agents at airports. A third of a century later, they are everywhere – at work, at school, at home.
In the early 1980s, there was more and more talk of display terminal problems, eye problems, neck pain, and so on. Terms such as Repetitive Stress Injuries (RSI) and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome have entered our everyday language. It has become commonplace to see people walking around with a special device for the lower arms and wrists. Surgery is more and more a last resort.
Why did this happen? Was it a computer or a faulty piece of furniture? That’s what ergonomists have said and an entire industry has been created to rearrange the work environment to reduce the risk of injury. Countless magazine and newspaper articles provide ergonomic-inspired advice on seating, screen and keyboard placement, and more.
But the RSI epidemic continues despite everything. Why?
I think the main reason is our inability to look closely at how we function in our lives – our inability to ask ourselves the following question: “How can I use myself when I drive, when I walk, do I clean the dishes, use my computer? ”
The best ergonomic design will do nothing to prevent RSI if we misuse ourselves. And if we use ourselves well, we can operate without undue hardship even in difficult and uncomfortable situations. Ergonomic solutions are not useless but they are only part of the solution.
So, how can you learn to use yourself more effectively? Is there a proven method that can be learned?
The work of F. Matthias Alexander, today commonly called Alexander Technique, is such a method. It has long been helping people deal with the stress issues that more and more people are facing. The whole question of how we use ourselves is precisely why Alexander spent the work of his life. Indeed, his third book was entitled “The use of the Self”.
The introductions to this book and to the other two Alexander books were written by Professor John Dewey. Dewey was the most famous philosopher in the United States and one of the leading advocates of the school of philosophy known as pragmatism. He was also very influential in the development of American education in the first part of the last century. He is sometimes called “the father of American education”.
Dewey knew from experience that Alexander’s ideas and teaching method (applied today by thousands of professors around the world) were of utmost importance to all of us in the face of the challenges of the rapid evolution of technology.