Humans or TechnoBodies?

If we are to believe that "human is unthinkable without technology" (Shaw, 2008, p81) then we would have to believe that, in everyday living, we would be unable to achieve the simplest of tasks, without the assistance of technology. Something as simple as getting up in the morning would be near impossible and basic needs like eating and exercising wouldn't even be a thought. Is this the way it has always been or has New Media made it so we have other factors to relay on for the everyday, mundane tasks? The way in which we have consumed new technology could confirm this statement.

As technology has developed through the years, industry has found ways to make ordinary tasks seem that much easier. Looking at something as simple as a universal remote eliminated the need to have multiple remotes around the living room, meaning that they couldn't be lost as easy and you wouldn't have to get off the sofa to get another remote for example, to turn on the DVD player. This kind of ideology spread to other outlets and New Media has now found a way into our hands through our smartphones, tablets and laptops, all of which are carried around day to day, by the general public. Everything that someone needs and more can be accessed from your smartphone. Emails can be checked, video calls, any form of social media, online shopping and even checking the weather. As the consumption of these products and ideas expands, they gradually become an even bigger presence within everyday life, "We may have made these 'machines' but not, in a very real sense, they make us" (Shaw, 2008, p88)

In order to make the statement at the beginning redundant, humans have to be able to show that they can exist without the need to use technology to make life easier and cut down on its consumption, but now with humans using maybe two different technologies at the same time, for example, tweeting on their phone while watching TV, maybe what Shaw says in Technoculture: The Key Concepts has some truth to it. Maybe humans have been "cyborged by our own machines" (Shaw, 2008, p95) and humans really are becoming "TechnoBodies"?

Bibliography

Shaw, D (2008) Technoculture: The Key Concepts: Oxford Berg Press