Has Technology Decreased the Quality of Life?

Something I wonder about is if technology has for the most part decreased the quality of life. I know it's brought about medicines and cures to diseases, but it does seem for every disease that is cured by technology, another is created. Something that looks to have actually been a rarity hundreds of years ago is cancer and why? Because they didn't add chemicals to everything that people ate and drank and whatnot.
Technology has certainly sped up our lives, so even though our life expectancy is longer than it used to be, do we use up our time in a sense faster than we would have before? We're very routine now and we really do use up our time, very little enjoying the fact that you're alive and taking in the scenery.
Though we seem to be more connected as a race thanks to the internet among other things, are we really more disconnected? I mean there's not much more for walking down the street of your small neighbourhood/village and knowing everybody that lived there and being friends with them. And now, in our free time, instead of getting together with other people and telling stories and whatnot, we go our separate ways, watch TV and use the computer. Why most people now eat dinner in front of the computer or TV. Not much more along the lines of family time or discussions around the dinner table.

So are we ultimately better because of this technology, or have we actually decreased the way of life?

Theres two sides to a coin, that thing about dinner, me and my family dont always have it at the same time but we do always sit at the table together.
We are more disconeccted as we don't see people anymore but we talk to many people at the same time due to instant messaging, plus the internet i can talk to people with similar intrests to me like you guys.

But there's only so much "companionship" text can give you. And most people on the net aren't really who they claim to be.

Better. A crapload better. I mean, compare your life to how it was in medieval times. Back then, you'd be incredibly lucky if you lived to be 50 because of all the horrible diseases people had absolutely no idea how to cure, and the chance to be forced into the army and dying in whatever pointless little war some rich moron has started to get richer.

Sure, we have cancer now, partly because of the technology (but keep in mind that we had cancer a long time before we got to the point we're at now), but one disease that can be slowed down, and might be cured in the coming decades, is better than a shitload that no one even understands.

And yes, we have routines in our days and there's ''alot'' of work, but it's better than those times. Back then, you were most likely a farmer. And you weren't even likely to own your farm, you'd just be some poor, underpaid farmhand working for either the church or whoever owns the farm. The wages were so tiny that you only could afford some old stale shit to eat, the work was backbreaking and incredibly long (that's why alot is in quotation marks, you might think it's alot, but it's nothing compared to how it was before the 19th century) and you had little to no rights. Sick? Well, that's too bad. We'll just have to kick you out and find some other desperate peasant to work our lands, good luck finding a new home!

I could go on like this for ages, but let's just sum it up as ''No, life in the west today is heaven compared to how it was a couple of centuries ago''.

I'm more myself on the internet, in R/L i dont talk about sci-fi much which i love but online i do. i always find it easier to express myself online.

I'm talking more like in the last 100-ish years. I would by no means want to live in like the 1200s or anything.

To me it's all a matter of equivalent balances. I don't expect anybody to understand because nobody has in the past, but I'll put it out there anyways. Mind you this is simply to try and open your mind beyond the point of what you know and take for granted today.
OK, so you worked on the farm in shitty conditions. Today, you work in retail in shitty conditions. IN some ways the pay is equally as bad, it's just instead of 5 cents your earn, you make 6 bucks. But it still doesn't get you much. AT least back then you could barter and trade

Yes Cancer existed, but from what history can tell, it only appeared in the last few hundred years and was quite rare. So today we have cancer, back then, the common cold.
The had the Black Plague. We have had in the last 10 years, H1N1, Sars, Avian Bird Flue, Mad Cow disease, Ecoli. Most of these are either not curable or are very very difficult to cure.

As for pointless little wars to satisfy some rich mans needs *coughIraq*cough*. Yeah, they're still around and just as petty as before.

But do keep in mind, when I say all these, I enjoy the (for the most part comforts) of the 21st century. The ability to make films and animations and have this forum. But there is a good chunk of me that would've rather live in the fifties or something.

Here's a better way of putting my point. There needs to be a better balance. Right now we're in an age where technology is ruling the world in a weird way. We're all so consumed with our personal technologies that we have no time/interest in those actually physically around us. And we have our big urban cities and whatnot where nobody is a person, we're just bodies, running around the streets, filled with stress and no regard for those around us. We need a balance of the older sense of community and technology. One where we can cure the diseases we have without introducing new ones and where our whole lives aren't absorbed by our shitty jobs and using the PC or TV

Oh, back in the fifties, everyone who wasn't a white, middle class American had a kind of crappy life. Europe was in ruins, a shitload of people were dead, and so on. Things still sucked in Europe and for everyone but white middle class Americans before that time.

And yes, retail isn't the greatest job out there, but it's great compared to being a peasant in the middle ages. It might not get you a high tech computer, but it will get you high quality food (they could only afford food of incredibly low quality, and almost never meat) and some basic luxuries (a bed was basically the highest form of luxury you had as a peasant).

Those disease outbreaks you mentioned? They're absolutely nothing compared to all the stuff we've found a good cure for or wiped out completely. Most diseases that are considered a minor annoyance today were very likely to kill you back then. Heard of spanish flu? That one wiped out a pretty good portion of humanity.

The iraq war might have been kind of bad, but it wasn't two armies in the hundreds of thousands going up against eachother, and the other army being utterly eradicated, all but a few being either killed in battle or captured and killed (because they didn't have much in the way of basic human rights back then). And the Americans didn't burn the towns, rape the women and steal whatever they could find after winning the war.

Darkwing wrote:Here's a better way of putting my point. There needs to be a better balance. Right now we're in an age where technology is ruling the world in a weird way. We're all so consumed with our personal technologies that we have no time/interest in those actually physically around us. And we have our big urban cities and whatnot where nobody is a person, we're just bodies, running around the streets, filled with stress and no regard for those around us. We need a balance of the older sense of community and technology. One where we can cure the diseases we have without introducing new ones and where our whole lives aren't absorbed by our shitty jobs and using the PC or TV

Well... That's kind of true... There's not much of a sense of community anymore... But i'm quite sure it's been like that for the last 200 years. Maybe not as bad as it is now, but still, it's not like everyone loved and cared about everyone else back then. There were still big cities, and i doubt anything bigger than a village really had that much of a sense of community.

But we don't introduce many diseases with technology, in fact, we've made most diseases that were fatal in the last 200 years harmless with technology and only introduced a few diseases, diseases that we're working on a cure for.

At least that's how it is in the West... China's been pretty badly hit by technology and industry. Their cities are filled with smog, and lung cancer is probably quite common there. They probably had it better before...

Hey, I'm a white guy, things would be great for me

And like I said, it's the balance that I'm looking for. The balance of community and technology.
The thing with doing the comparisons is comparing the classes really. I mean you can't compare a first class citizen with a third class citizen. See to counter your arguments, I could talk about the homeless people with no jobs which would be more adequate for comparing. And in that same regard, I could only really compare the upper class with today's first class. Unfortunately the class structure will always remain through history and each class will in effect suffer and experience the same things through each generation. Just where one might've had the wagon, we have the car or whatever. Hopefully you get what I'm saying.
Again, just to drive it home, the balance is what we need. The one where we're not consumed by technology (especially disposable technology) but we have technology to assist us. Ultimately the quality of life will be determined by the human race and not by technology or anything else. It's up to us to make our lives how they are (for the most part) but unfortunately it needs to be done pretty much as a race in general. I mean there's not much I can do about the fact that retail companies own North America and therefor unless you have some higher education, you're pretty much stuck in retail with only basic rights at best.

It's too bad we can't go create our own village in the middle of nowhere

You could try and create a village at the South Pole... But you would need lots of resouces...

And parkas. No, I like things a bit warmer than the south pole

It would only be cold at the start... Once we were able to assemble the fission generator, we could start generating power and heat!

Or you could find some empty land somewhere and start a new community!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonestown

Oh, waiiit.

Mmmmm, mass suicide, yummy!

Again, I prefer the "running from zombie and establish a new community in the South Pole" thing than that...