The past and present have to be understood in order to predict possible future. As “human-technology relations have always been part of our human context” (Idhe, 1993), how technology is developing changes people’s behaviour and thus constructs the future. Technology has marked social progress and ultimately aims to achieve perfection. This concentration on perfection has affected self-love through various forms of technological development.

In both historical and current society, progress and technology are intrinsically linked. Hall has argued that “progress of human history is measured by technological development” (n.d.). As progress relates directly to the future, technology is the tool to shape the future. Progress is concerned with “gradual betterment” (Merriam-Webster, 2017). In general, the result of these progressive improvements directs to a perfectly happy existence, considering the pursuit of a better life has been a belief in human hearts. Technology links to progress which aims for this perfection. The ability to realize perfection using technology has and will shape the future, especially the future of love.

“Technology could become the standard against which nature must take account” (Idhe, 1993). This is perceptible when considering the effect of technology on self-love. Technology has the ability to transform impalpable concepts into tangible realities. Self-image became the target for achieving tangible perfection. In recent years, social media has been served as an influential technology that reshapes perceptions of self. Make-up, camera angles, filters and retouch on photos are technologies that are invented for people seeking perfection. Thinking from a deeper perspective, does these interventions influence us from a positive angle. A thought-provoking blog, ‘Hide Your Personal Failures from Social Media!’, describes the ability of social media to hide personal failures and to attain perfection. But as these images are technologically produced, the ‘natural’ self-image, and so self-love becomes vague and amiss. There are questions to be asked, do you really love yourself and why is technology so out of control? (Kim 2006)

Idhe suggests that “Technology can be neutral and rely upon how human uses it, with good results dependent upon good uses and bad results upon bad uses” (Idhe, 1993). Human well-being has the chance and ability to investigate technology, and technology, in turn, impacts us both mentally and physically. Technology has “always related to humans”, it depends upon “the latent powers of the particular technolo­gy involved as related to the complex of possibilities open to the human involved” (Idhe, 1993).

 

References

Ihde, D. 1993, ‘Technology’, Philosophy of Technology: An Introduction, New York, Paragon House, viewed 10 August 2018

Hall, J. n.d. ‘Facing the Future: progress as technological change’, Political Philosophy Thesis, Nuffield College, Oxford, viewed 10 October 2018, http://www.fhi.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/Facing-the-future-progress-as-technological-change.pdf

Van den Berg, P. 2007, ‘Body dissatisfaction and body comparison with media images in males and females’, Body Image, Vol. 4 No. 3, pp. 257-268, viewed 10 October 2018, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1740144507000435

Kim J. Vicente 2006, The Human Factor|Revolutionizing the Way People Live with Technology, 1st Edition, Routledge, NewYork.