Forget about technology, for a while

Every few months you're being forcefully subjected to some hyped up new 'innovation du jour' destined to turn your future world upside down, or so you're led to believe. In fact, if you're secretly (or overtly) hoping for the whole tech spectacle to self-combust and disappear, I would think no less of you. On the contrary, I would say you're displaying very sensible mental self-preservation impulses.

Somewhere along the line, we've started conflating technological innovation and societal progress with precious little evidence to show that these supposed advances are actually meaningfully elevating the quality of our existence and relationships. You're incessantly being fed the message that these innovations are inarguably destined to make your life better and that you ought to surrender to this techno-assimilation if you know what's good for you. Resistance is futile.

Meanwhile, we've become desensitised to the reality that after 30 years of relentless digital growth most of the world is still left behind, with little or no access to the global infrastructure that powers the bulk of our First World commerce. We witness but rarely act on the reality that this imbalance is exacerbating inequality by restricting access to a growing number of emergent opportunities that exist only by the grace of digital connectivity and processing power. Tough luck if you were born outside of the technological Goldilocks zone.

But even if you're fortunate enough to dwell within the privileged Western techno-bubble where unrestricted access to globally connected platforms and applications has morphed from privilege to perceived right, all is not well. We're more connected than ever and yet a frightening and self-amplifying wave of loneliness, isolation and mental health degradation is crashing onto the shores of our modern society. The same innovations that were promised to deliver us from separation are causing inner turmoil and sowing division.

Therefore, if you outright reject the commonly implied notion that not keeping pace with technological innovation will condemn you to irrelevance and herald the downfall of your job or business, you're not being unreasonable. In fact, it is striking how many of the supposed visionaries who create the platforms that have caused so much mental enslavement won't let their own kids near them, but yours are fair game. 

Do as we say, don't do as we do.

So, here and now, I would like you to discard any latent anxiety about being left behind just because you claim perhaps only a fleeting interest in technology or none at all. It's okay not to be interested and it's okay not to try and keep up. You'll be fine, I promise.

You see, what may not be so obvious to the average bystander witnessing the blistering pace of innovation is that there's a growing premium on disconnection, even outright renunciation. Until recently, having access to relatively expensive technologies like smartphones, tablets and laptops, all, of course, permanently connected and always on, was an indicator of success and status.

But the pendulum has begun to swing back. Turning off our phones and closing our laptops for any significant length of time remains a privilege reserved for the few who can afford to step out of our largely self-inflicted digital cage. Soon, I predict, disconnection will become a right claimed by the masses and as a result technology will transform into a much more utilitarian reality; extremely powerful but in service of people, not vice versa.

Great technology is invisible, non-intrusive and exists in harmony with our innate human impulses and needs. A healthy relationship between man and machine is per definition symbiotic, or it will trigger the kind of backlash I predict is coming.

That doesn't mean technological innovation will cease, or even slow down. It won't, the pace will continue to accelerate for decades to come, I assure you. Yet as machines get better at replacing a significant portion of human labour, this will elevate to renewed heights the qualities that technology has a much harder time emulating, at least for the foreseeable future: creativity, gregariousness, motivational skills, empathy, community building. Sound familiar?

So while the digital winds of change sweep across our society I would like you to consider merely observing the coming and goings of technology fads and even legitimate, enduring innovations. Do it from a position of confidence in your innate abilities as connectors of people. Leave the fetishising to people like me. And when confronted with yet another new revolutionary advancement you supposedly can't afford not to know about, may I suggest you simply apply Mekki's Razor: any technology worth assimilating is benign, accessible and easy to master. If it isn't, ignore it.

Marc Mekki is a speaker, author, consultant and trainer on digital innovation, lean startups, design thinking and the future of travel and tourism. Having spent the last 20 years taking up entrepreneurship challenges in China, Europe and the Middle East, Mekki is well placed to offer actionable advice and co-strategise on innovation and digital transformation projects. He focuses on demystifying technology and innovation, entrepreneurship challenges and solutions, the future of travel and design thinking.