Socrates didn’t write anything down. What we know of his words are through people like Plato and Xenophon. What we know about the great master of philosophy is a Platoized rendition of his work.
When paper came to use in Athens, Socrates was appalled by the idea. He believed the mass dissemination of written words would inhibit the intelligence of others. It would limit their own creation of thoughts and ideas by allowing them to read what others thought. Who knows? Maybe he was correct. Ever see an academic function in the real world and problem solve outside of what they’ve been taught in a textbook? It seems any more, the higher the formal education, the less thinking one does for themselves.
Socrates also refused to write things down because he believed it was a sort of finalizing of thought and thoughts by their very nature should never be finalized. Paper was the latest, greatest technology of his time and he was one of those people who rejected technology.
When it comes to modern day technology, I have to admit I err on the side of Socratic thinking. The internet hasn’t made the masses more intelligent. I don’t have any studies to cite but watch a few tiktok videos and I think you’ll agree with me. I recently watched one of those random sidewalk interviews where a reporter stops people on the street to ask them a question. The question was “what is the holocaust.?” The answers were “the holo-what?” “You mean, like the country?” “Is this some sort of California thing?” One woman, about my age was asked how many people were killed during the holocaust and her answer was “about 600.” She was only off by a mere 6 million. My guess is she isn’t maximizing her time spent on the internet.
i-phones regularly help dissolve marriages. Smart Compose and auto-correct don’t make you smart and actually lessen your ability to spell. Social media makes people more anti-social.
There are a lot of negative consequences to the overuse of technology. But I have to remind myself of the awe-inspiring effects technology brings to our lives as well. We can literally find our way to any place on earth with Google Maps. With the touch of a button, we have a driver to take us wherever we want to go and we don’t even have to pull out our wallets. All of the world’s knowledge is in our pocket. All of it! That is a difficult thing to wrap your mind around..
The list of good technology has brought to the world is endless. It is unfortunate we don’t use it for all the good it was developed.
It could make our lives easier without making our lives so easy we forget what it is like to struggle. We could use it to gain knowledge instead of dumbing ourselves down. We could connect with people from all over the world instead of arguing with people who live next door.
I am as guilty of misusing technology as anyone reading this article. However, I am making a conscious effort to change that. Using it to save myself time, instead of wasting my time. To connect with people all around the world through my writing, instead of arguing and trying to change the minds of people whose only interest is to be right.
Recording my podcast that now has active listeners in seven different countries. Receiving messages from complete strangers from places as far away as Australia and New Zealand, telling me how I positively impact their lives.
I’m writing my book on a typewriter to avoid the dull, robot-like voice of the typical New York Times list authors. Google doesn’t need to speak for me, nor does it need to suggest how I write.
I ditched my iphone for a flip phone a few months back and spared myself the agony of group texts and the neurotic checking of email at every stop light. This move alone has freed up hours in my day.
Technology isn’t something deserving the blame we place on it. Technology is a mere response to what humans desire. If we didn’t use it, it would perish. Technology is’t ruining lives, that’s up to those using it.
In a greater effort to reduce my reliance on technology, I decided I would take a break from it one day per week. No emails, no texts, no social media and no phone calls. One day per week connecting with myself and the world around me, in the flesh. Write on my typewriter (which is technology - I get it) but put work on the computer off to another day. Schedule a coffee date with friends I don’t see nearly enough and read the remainder of the day.
Tuesdays are my day to go tech-free. I invite you to join me. If it can’t be during the typical work week, do it on the weekend.
We don’t need to turn away from technology like Socrates turned away from paper. We just need to pay attention to how we use it. It is unfortunate he wasn’t willing to embrace paper, as most of us would have preferred to hear from him directly, rather than his students. If he were alive today, I would suggest he step away from paper one day per week.