Choosing Technology

Technology is an odd subject. We all use it, but at points we feel it necessary to discuss what technology is doing to us. I’m enjoying Shteyngart’s novel, and in it, he is addressing the increasing use of technology by society. He presents two main characters, Lenny and Eunice. Lenny is older, less involved with the technology while Eunice is young and submerged in it. They both have their faults, Lenny wants to live forever, the first thing we learn about him, “Today I’ve made a major decision: I am never going to die” (Shteyngart 3). He can’t afford to live forever, and he doesn’t really have a concrete reason to live forever. He loves Eunice but doesn’t mention living forever with her. Eunice is sort of brash, and puts more worth in aspects of social media than Lenny does.  But they’re not bad people, they're very human, despite Lenny's aspirations of immortality

In Shteyngart's article about using the Google Glass, because he was using the emerging technology himself, technology more advanced than what the average person has. At the end of his experience with Google Glass, Shteyngart references Octavia Butler’s “Bloodchild.” I read “Bloodchild” last year, I recommend it, its short but riveting and disturbing. These huge insects use the humans inhabitants of their planet as carriers of their eggs, the young protagonist is slated to be a carrier when he sees a violent birth take place. He also includes Butler’s quote about the story, how it is “a love story between two different beings.” The story’s protagonist, a young man, discusses carrying the eggs with his Tlic, T’Gatoi, who offers to choose another family member as her carrier. But the young man chooses to remain the carrier despite what he has seen. We’ve chosen to use technology, each of us use it at a different level, and maybe others have chosen to shun all technology.

I think the tendency in some works is to immediately focus on the negative aspects of technology, and how it is going to destroy our world or society as we know it. But that doesn’t stop us from using it. When Edward Snowden leaked the NSA information, no one stopped using their phones. There is implied surveillance in Shteyngart’s world, though largely the United States. This surveillance is happening in conjunction with the use of emerging technology. But it doesn’t bother anyone, because they still chose to use the technology. In the novel, it is not an increased surveillance presence, there is no privacy; right down to the see-through jeans. But in the novel, Shteyngart implies that society chose to lose privacy, or at the very least, did not put up a fight as it left. I appreciate having my privacy, and I could certainly take steps to ensure it, but I largely don’t, because I’m hardly very active on social media sites, despite that, I still identify with Eunice and her constant apparat checking and online shopping. It’s all a matter of choice for each individual person.