Human Relationship with Others as well as with Nature in Symbolic Operation
We've considered lots of the possibility that technology (e.g., computer, Internet, VR) could bring to educational reform. In the future, there might also be increasingly other kinds of technological tools come into being. What I'm concerning is how those different tools may influence people's interaction with each other as well as with nature in different ways. Since from my growing experiences in China, I feel like people are getting more and more isolated from each other as well as from nature due to new forms of playing, living as well as studying and working.
In my childhood, there were not so many buildings in the town and most people lived in a yard with their siblings. In my memory, elder people could spend the whole day talking to their neighbors and children enjoy many outdoor games very freely. But currently, lots of people experience much pressure and also seem to have fewer intimate friends to share life with. I've been living in an apartment in Guangzhou, which is built by the government for young adults who come from other places to work in Guangzhou. I've noticed people's heavy burdens that they carry on. In this summer, a young girl jumped out of her apartment. I didn't know the exact reason she chose to suicide but it touched me a lot. From my perspective, no matter for working or for studying, without entertainment or enjoyment, it would frustrate people extremely. Currently, many people sit in front of a desk during work for the whole day without communicating with others or merely talk with each other for functional purposes, pretty much similar in middle and high schools. When they come back home, the atmosphere of the apartment also could not encourage people's close connection. Thus, I'm thinking about how the constructed environment has reshaped people's well-being, physically and psychologically.
On my way back to school, I've talked with a taxi driver, around 50 years old I guess, and he said sadly that it was very hard for people to establish trust and intimacy with each other. He mentioned that in his childhood, he could walk for miles to watch a movie in another town, chatting with friends happily along the way. However, currently, even though he could watch a movie at home or go to the cinema easily, he could not feel happiness like before and he even doesn't know much about his neighbors.
Another scenario is when I went to a restaurant with my friends this summer, I noticed seven or eight teenagers at another table playing phone games in silence for a long while. And I also see how exhausted my students feel after playing the games. I'm not criticizing the technology for this wrong end. I've just so concerned about the development of its' future. Without establishing close personal relationships and connection with nature, I'm pondering upon the negative aspects of technology on human beings' psychological development in the long run. The question is how we could apply technology in enhancing humanity rather than diminishing it. The same also goes to architecture design. Shall the form follow the current dominant function, many of which are deprived of poetic lifestyle, or shall we employ it to determine future function? And in what ways?
In my childhood, there were not so many buildings in the town and most people lived in a yard with their siblings. In my memory, elder people could spend the whole day talking to their neighbors and children enjoy many outdoor games very freely. But currently, lots of people experience much pressure and also seem to have fewer intimate friends to share life with. I've been living in an apartment in Guangzhou, which is built by the government for young adults who come from other places to work in Guangzhou. I've noticed people's heavy burdens that they carry on. In this summer, a young girl jumped out of her apartment. I didn't know the exact reason she chose to suicide but it touched me a lot. From my perspective, no matter for working or for studying, without entertainment or enjoyment, it would frustrate people extremely. Currently, many people sit in front of a desk during work for the whole day without communicating with others or merely talk with each other for functional purposes, pretty much similar in middle and high schools. When they come back home, the atmosphere of the apartment also could not encourage people's close connection. Thus, I'm thinking about how the constructed environment has reshaped people's well-being, physically and psychologically.
On my way back to school, I've talked with a taxi driver, around 50 years old I guess, and he said sadly that it was very hard for people to establish trust and intimacy with each other. He mentioned that in his childhood, he could walk for miles to watch a movie in another town, chatting with friends happily along the way. However, currently, even though he could watch a movie at home or go to the cinema easily, he could not feel happiness like before and he even doesn't know much about his neighbors.
Another scenario is when I went to a restaurant with my friends this summer, I noticed seven or eight teenagers at another table playing phone games in silence for a long while. And I also see how exhausted my students feel after playing the games. I'm not criticizing the technology for this wrong end. I've just so concerned about the development of its' future. Without establishing close personal relationships and connection with nature, I'm pondering upon the negative aspects of technology on human beings' psychological development in the long run. The question is how we could apply technology in enhancing humanity rather than diminishing it. The same also goes to architecture design. Shall the form follow the current dominant function, many of which are deprived of poetic lifestyle, or shall we employ it to determine future function? And in what ways?
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