What is the Impact of technology? It depends on the intention.

Kati Anglin, Human Factors Engineer

I fell victim to the technological black hole again. A funny video of a dog snoring reminded me of a relative who has notoriously bad sleep apnea, which eventually led me to videos filled with pranks and acapella groups. I then began reading posts by random people, collecting memes, and googling information about the creator of "Teletubbies."  By the end of my binge, I began to ask myself the same question when I eat a whole tub of peanut butter in one sitting, "why?!"

I know I'm not the only one. We've all wasted hours on our devices. Yet, technology has provided the ability to increase efficiency as well as opportunities to sustain long-distance relationships.  I can contact my family from (almost) anywhere in the world and send a message at any time. My phone can tell me how to get to my desired destinations (albeit, not always reliably) and even augment reality when playing Pokémon GO. Needless to say, technology is continuously revolutionizing the way we live. However, the black hole I fell into is just an example of the downside to our society's relationship with technology. When we should be driving, we are too busy finishing a text or scrolling memes. When we're at dinner, we forget the beauty of face-to-face communication and become distracted by things that can wait an hour. We lose sleep, we lose time to be productive, and we sometimes lose sanity. Everything is right at our fingertips to the point that we forget to think about why we are doing those particular actions and lose sight of intention.

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Intention is used to explain human goal directed behavior. We all hear that intention without action gets you nowhere, but rarely do we look at the detrimental effects of action without intention. These detrimental effects are particularly prevalent when using technology, creating an unhealthy relationship with our devices. For example, we get side-tracked when talking to a long-distance friend by a video of a snoring dog. We wake up in the morning or sit in our cars for an embarrassingly long time while scrolling on our phones without any reason (guilty), wasting time and reducing efficiency.

Individuals in everyday life are not the only perpetrators of mismatched or nonexistent intentions with technology. This is also occurring in the simulation and training realm. Although training technology advancements are occurring every day and pushing our capabilities further than ever before, these technologies are not developed with a specific intention. We're so worried about being on the cutting-edge that it is common for people to look at a piece of technology and ask how it could be implemented instead of asking why it is useful. As a result, technology becomes implemented into a program that doesn't necessarily benefit, reducing cost effectiveness and potentially hindering training effectiveness.

Our efforts at Quantum Improvements Consulting involve conducting research and applying human factors principles in effort to answer "why," reducing the gap between intention and action.  We acknowledge that our actions, whether it be in our personal or work lives, have the potential to be a waste of time and effort without intention. Therefore, it is critical to use and develop technology for a specific purpose. At that point will we use technology to advance ourselves rather than fall victim to the black holes.

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