Technology: It is not who you are.

My education is not primarily in Technology. Not even close. It is in Theology and Philosophy. World Views you might say. I would like to think that my education helps me keep technology in it proper place in the world. And more importantly in my world.

As an individual I am deeply immersed in technology. I am in fact almost exclusively involved with either teaching technology, learning new technology or writing about it. I am a geeks geek. I love the shiny lights, the empowerment and the wizardry.

I never, never get involved in Technology VS. Technology debates anymore.


As I have explored my discomfort with the iPhone vs. Android, PC vs. MAC, Chevy vs. Ford debates I have come to think that my discomfort is dual in nature.


At the top of the list is the acute realization that the more I learn about technology and the way it interacts with society the less I know about it.  My knowledge base grows daily. It is my job to learn at an almost break neck pace. Besides the fact that my appetite for technical knowledge is almost limitless, I have an innate ability to quickly absorb and digest technical knowledge.  Even so, I feel a most lugubrious Luddite when I consider the scope of what some of my near betters know or do when it comes to technology.

Put simply what I do not know about the technology I hold dearest would fill encyclopedias.

I look a fool arguing for something I am not absolute maser of.

Secondly, I refuse to have my identity as a person pigeonholed with something as limiting as a piece of technology.  Humans are flawed enough as it is. I certainly am flawed. To add to that lack the failings of a peice of technology is sheer madness.
My identity as a person is so complex that even I struggle with it from day to day. We all do. The great "Who Am I?" Should not be answered so simply as "A PC fan."   or "A staunch defender of the Apple design ethos."  That can and should certainly be apart of my identity. But not the hinge on which my destiny and value turn.
I am an enthusiast. I am enthusiastic about certain pieces and kinds of technology. And I can argue their relative merits. (The ones I think I understand.) But those enthusiasms have changed over time certainly.
More importantly I am an enthusiasist of people. This enormous rock we live on is populated by some of the most incredibly complex and interesting life forms. People are awesome.

If my enthusiasm for technology steps between my getting to know a person better. Then technology fails.

And certainly this is just an opinion. Part of my identity and subject to revision, redaction and outright denial at some later point.
Jason Wesley Tyler
http://Android.jwtyler.com
Twitter: @jwtyler