Technology has changed the world in the most fundamental ways possible, from the way we govern to the most mundane parts of our lives.
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That’s great, but as Sir Bob Geldof, the rock star behind the Live Aid phenomenon notes, parts of that change have come at a massive cost.
Addressing a special press briefing at the One Young World summit in Johannesburg today, Geldof spoke about some of technology’s successes in connecting people around the world, as well as some of its biggest failings.
“Any disruptive technology disrupts the prevailing logic,” Geldof says. “It’s disrupted my industry, music, and it’s disrupting your industry, the media in a big way.”
That same disruption is visibly evident in politics, education and almost any other sector of society you care to mention. At its best, technology allows for the kind of dialogue the world desperately needs.
“I have a view of things that can be argued with, I always have,” says Geldof, “I want to be taken to task about the things I say.” And technology is great at building platforms that facilitate that kind of debate.
He adds that it’s important to remember that “technology means people can focus down on their communications with each other”. We can hone in specific interests and bring specific issues to the public’s attention.
At its worst though, Geldof adds, our obsession with technology can mean that “we’re consumed with trivia”. This is especially true of social media, which Geldof says can sometimes feel like the “village idiot ranting in the pub” about nothing in particular.
Moreover, he says, “there’s an ambiguity about technology and what people think is cool”. When it comes to the way we treat big tech giants like Google and Facebook, Geldof thinks we need a major rethink.
“Google and Facebook are about as cool as the Sahara desert,” he says. “They’re massive corporates”. That’s something which, to his mind at least, we shouldn’t be so quick to forget.
Geldof also reckons that our slavish adoration of technology as an abstract concept has had some very serious consequences.
The most visible demonstration, he says, is in the financial sector where tech means that decisions with massive implications are made faster than the human brain can even contemplate them.
“We’ve reached a point of financial chicanery. Greece is prostate,” he says referring to that country’s economic woes fueled by the European debt crisis, “that wouldn’t have happened without technology.”
It’s not just countries that are affected by the acceleration of boom and bust cycles created by technology. Geldof points to BlackBerry and Nokia as examples of previously successful companies that had almost no chance of keeping up.
We tend to think of their demise in fairly abstract terms, but Geldof is quick to point out that their demises cost tens of thousands of people their jobs.
And while technology can be used to further the cause of democracy, as it was at times during the Arab Spring, Geldof cautions that it can erode true democracy when used improperly by those in power. To his mind, it allows leaders to create the illusion that they are listening to people and that, through their presence, they are giving people the opportunity to participate in democracy.
On a larger scale, says the Boomtown Rats frontman, technology could create a hyper democracy where more things on offer bring about the illusion of choice.
He likens social media to a global hive mind “where we all touch feelers” without ever really connecting.
That said, he acknowledges that it’s difficult to propose solutions to these problems. Unlike the Cold War narrative which still loomed large when Geldof formed Live Aid, he says, “the threats we face are existential.”
Despite this kind of sentiment, it’s also clear than Geldof isn’t anti-technology — he is preparing to go into space after all — and that his message is more that we should always be aware of the consequences before rushing blindly into the get big tech trend.
