Technology is a tool

I got in a car accident this morning.  Nothing serious, in fact after everything was over there wasn’t even any damage and the officer wouldn’t take a report.  But at the time I didn't know what had happened, so as she "fled the scene," I followed her (at a safe distance) and called 911.  It took a bit of time for the dispatcher to figure out where I was located because I didn’t really know the name of any cross streets.

After this was all over I called my husband to tell him everything.  I even mentioned my inability to remember any of the street names.  I said to him, “I don’t the names of the streets, I just know how to drive on them.”  And that’s when it hit me - this attitude mimics the way we should look at technology.

I have always said there were two kinds of photographers.  Those who were interested in the images they produced and those who I like to call the “Tan-Vesters.”  Sure, there are times I’ve been shooting when I wouldn’t mind having one of those things, but this isn’t so much about the vest as it is about the attitude towards photography or really any creative medium.

A few years ago I attended an artist talk by a photographer named Lex Thompson.  Lex’s photographs are an interesting, unblinking look at the detritus we leave in our quest for happiness.  After his compelling talk outlining the concepts behind his work he asked for questions and the first one he received was which filter did he use on a slide three slides back?  I could remember thinking, “Seriously? That’s all you got out of all of this?”  That person, my friends, was a tan-vester.  Someone who gets so caught up on the tools that they forget to see the big picture.

Now this doesn’t mean we should all go willy-nilly into using technology without knowing what we’re doing.  But we should remember that technology is only a tool and not an end in itself.  I had a student who approached me asking to do an independent study.  His proposal was that he wanted to learn everything about the program Flash, but wasn’t interested in making anything.  I asked him what the point was then?  How could anyone fully appreciate what he or she was learning without the framework of producing something from what they found?  I told him it would be like “learning how to use a pencil, without ever making a mark.”  Needless to say, that independent study course never happened.

Technology is a tool.  Whether it’s a new camera lens, a software program, a pencil or even our hands, the point should always be in how they are used, as knowledge of them is no end in itself.  The girl who hit me in her car this morning might have known the name of the road we were on, but it sure didn’t make her a good driver.