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Define Efficiency
There are two options for researching the meaning of words: in a book or on a computer.
Which one do you think is more efficient? Are you leaning heavily towards the computer? Let’s conduct an experiment.
Using Google, type, “labyrinth definition.” After an exhaustive 0.31 seconds, there were approximately three million results for this specific search. Mind-boggling!
Now, using a hand-held dictionary, look up the word, “labyrinth.” While there was only one definition and it took a few seconds to locate, there are now tens of thousands of other words at your immediate convenience.
In this quest for a definition, but ultimately knowledge, which option cast a better, wider net?
Between the book and the computer, which one proves to be more of a labyrinth to an immediate abundance of information?
Mind-boggling indeed.
Rage with the Machine
I was in a Japanese restaurant several months ago and they offered my guest and me standard laminated menus. Then, almost instantaneously, the waiter placed an iPad with a stand on the table that turned out to be a digital menu. We were scrolling, tapping and searching through all the pictures of the sushi they made. With sushi, in particular, this was a great tool to use when choosing the right platter. While the iPad was only at our table for a short period, it was a nice alternative to a purely text-based menu. The use of an iPad as a menu is a growing trend in restaurants these days. There is definitely a coolness factor to it.
While on vacation in California, my family and I stopped in the hot, yet luxurious, Palm Desert. After walking inside one of the many stores, I asked the salesperson if they carried a particular polo. Instead of turning around and searching the store, looking at a paper with its inventory or rushing to the backroom, she turned and grabbed an iPad and tapped-scrolled and typed her way to discovering they did not have it in-stock. It took all of ten seconds. Even without having the shirt available in the store, she was able to have a picture with an option to order the exact polo I was asking about. She was ready to place the order for me on the spot, if I was so inclined.
Wow. Now that’s customer service.
Like restaurants, there seem to be more and more iPads/tablets used for businesses, from retail to the local cupcake shop Tin in suburban Columbus, Ohio. The convenience works both ways, for customers as well as employees.
U.S. citizens have been increasingly encouraged to file their taxes online (ie-paperless). While doing work online is certainly faster and more efficient in some ways (I’ve participated in this practice as an fyi), we can all recall the story of when hackers got their digital hands on thousands of sensitive materials from The Pentagon. If hackers can find their way into The Pentagon…
However tempting this convenience appears (and it is), we do need to remain cognizant of the risks.
The point is that we tend to be trending towards, however slowly, a paperless society. There are positives, without question, but also definite negatives to this digital evolution. It reminded me of a short clip from a show about this very reality occurring with the Millennials, my generation.
Is the TV Watching Me?
There is a television commercial for a Samsung Smart TV with a wireless, Wii-like movement sensor. This state-of-the-art product, as highlighted on Samsung’s website, includes many fascinating capabilities, such as: Gesture Control, Voice Control, Face Recognition and Smart View App. All are surely the latest in technological developments for a television set. Click here to be linked to the Samsung Smart TV website, which offers quick tutorials in how their recognitions work. Scroll down to “Control. Navigate. Be recognized.” Then, click on “See How it Works” for each one.
A more intimate relationship between ourselves and our televisions is being pushed more and more everyday. Does that seem creepy or make anybody else incredibly uneasy?
The iPhone and the Android are the two most popular phones on the market today. Why? They are fully loaded with a myriad of applications, high resolution cameras for pictures and video recording, plus many more fun and time consuming features. As an owner, the iPhone 4S is a terrific phone. Actually, a more appropriate term would be handheld computer. Admittedly, there are moments I wonder just how much I’m being tracked on a daily basis. This curiosity does spark an introspective reaction of wanting more privacy, if that even exists anymore.
On occasion, Time Warner Cable or the television will sputter or freeze while in the middle of a sitcom or a crucial Champions League Quarterfinal match. Annoying does not even begin to describe the frustration this causes. Waiting minutes for the system to thaw and/or restarting the cable box is enough to require an Advil. It is the 21st Century and the year 2013, shouldn’t television’s just work as televisions?
Yes, they should.
There is a marketplace for people who want their televisions to be the epicenter of all things entertainment, social and personal. Okay. But what about those who want only a television?
The following is a business proposal specifically for the major television companies: make state-of-the-art televisions that do basically only that. Build and manufacture televisions that have the capability to record a few shows at once with a DVR with stunning high-definition. No smart devices or senors would be programmed. The television would have breathtaking clarity and the capacity to record multiple shows and movies. In essence, it would be a television set, not a computer.
On one side of the electronics store will be the Einstein section, with products that are so smart that we don’t really need to do anything ourselves. Conversely, the other side will feature the clearest and most efficient televisions with the fastest processing speed and outstanding picture quality. There will be a guide, DVR and a 3-D switchover available. The goal being to perfect the technology released to the public from a couple years ago. Before immediately diving into new and uncharted technological waters, it’s time to be patient and excel in the present.
Once this more “basic” option is established, then let the people decide in the marketplace, literally.
Despite speaking about the internet specifically, the concept of a computer or memory system that remembers everything is quickly becoming a reality that is increasingly surrounding us, especially with the roll-out of more and more “smart” products. Is this really a good thing?
“We don’t want everything to be recorded. We still want that dark space. The internet needs to learn how to forget. All it knows at the moment is how to remember, that’s not very human.”
—UK author Andrew Keen, “Digital Vertigo”
Technology is wonderful and life-altering in a variety of ways, without question. For example, advancements in the medical field have saved countless lives over the years. There is a necessary space for cutting-edge technology. However, let’s not be so anxious to hand over yet another set of keys of society and privacy quite yet.
After all, how smart would that be?
Here’s another way to look at it:
Ben Stiller=Smart Television Watcher
Robert De Niro=A Smart Television
Jimmy's Daily Planet 