Facilitating Joy (part 1)

I like to think of technology as a means of better facilitating a certain desired process. For example, a phone is a piece of technology that facilitates my being able to speak with people over long distances. My bicycle and my car are both methods that facilitate traveling over distances.There are two main upsides to thinking about technology this way, for me. For this post, I am just going to talk about the first one.

Viewing technology as part of process makes me realize that the individual piece of technology is not the goal. I remember dreaming of my first car in high school as I drove old, third-hand beaters or caught rides with friends for all my transportation. I now do have my own car that I like quite a lot, but I am not in love with it the way I was with the idea of having as a teenager. What changed?

My old view was that the car was going to make me happy because it took me places quickly and, often, entertainingly, as I sang along to the radio. My current perspective is that  going places makes me happy. I like being able to travel with ease to get food, see my friends, enjoy the outdoors, etc. I like all of those processes, and having a car makes them much easier for me in my current residence.

But, soon, I will be moving to Copenhagen, leaving my car behind, and buying a bicycle. I will be living a 15 minute bike ride from my school and with in walking distance from groceries and other life necessity. Do I feel like my happiness will be reduced by not having the car? No. My happiness will never be totally dependent on the car. Not having transportation at all would make it rather difficult to have access to the processes that make life enjoyable to me, but as long as I have some kind of transportation available, I will probably be able to find at least minimal access to those processes. Access to various technologies can greatly increase our ability and the ease with which we get to experience joy from our most important life processes.

So, how do we decide in our lives which technology to use? Cars or bicycles? E-mail or carrier pigeons? I think this view can help with deliberating what technology we want to be part of our lives, and my next post will be all about that.