In Ray Bradbury’s The Pedestrian, the author describes his vision of a future dystopian world, highlighting the impact of technological advancements on society. In this story, written in 1951, the author tried to predict the effects of technology around the year 2053; some points of his forecast included: isolated socities, no human interaction, technological dependency, and more. Considering that Bradbury bloomed to fame during a period of time where technology wasn’t a prime element in life, he did make certain statements that could have some weight on the way we perceive technology’s impact nowadays.
For instance, one of Bradbury’s main takeaways is the fact that technology has caused a huge isolation problem, where people from all age ranges are constantly connected to digital devices and therefore, reducing social interactions. According to MuleSoft’s 2022 Connectivity Benchmark Report, 72% of customer interactions are now digital, meaning that face-to-face communication among people is almost rare in today’s world, and will probably be even more in the future.
Although this statistic might sound alarming as it is, it doesn’t only imply negative aspects, bearing in mind that technology has allowed the creation of multiple new channels of communication, breaking down geographical barriers that were once presented, providing global connectivity between everyone in the world. These advancements have laid out a series of resources that can help us achieve our goals more efficiently, like for example building relationships, getting job opportunities, studying internationally, and more.
In summary, Ray Bradbury’s depiction of a future dominated by technology is a reality that resonates with the modern state of the world; however the big difference between his portrayal of the future and ours, is that we think of technology as a tool with a vast ocean of possibilities, both good and bad; it depends on each individual on how to make use of it in their lives, as it provides us with thousands of benefits to make our day to day easier. The key element to the usage of technology is to find the perfect balance between its conveniences and the conservation of human connections.
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