It is, therefore, our aspiration to be something above what we are, which incorporates the use of tools, that defines humanity. If you look at technology in it's most base form we can look at the rock being used to crack open nuts as one of the first examples of technology. It is one of the first instances of when man has attempted to achieve something, failed and then imagined a way of overcoming this wall by interacting with his surroundings. Andy Clark and David Chalmers talk about technology as if it were scaffolding that extends our reach, our vision, our mental capacity (Silva, 2016). Technology is us in a sense because of how we use it to define ourselves; I am not able to communicate with people from afar without the use of a phone, however because I have a phone I am able to do so. It's also interesting that the way we talk about our use of technology suggests our adoption of it into our definition of humanity; I would say "I am texting my friend" as opposed to "I'm using my phone to text my friend". This could just be a result of the overwhelming integration of technology into our lives as it was predicted that by the end of 2015, 22% of the worlds population own a smartphone (Business Insider, 2015). It could also be the development of language to eliminate unnecessary words in our everyday speech due to technology's increasingly ubiquitous nature. Regardless, it is a testament to how we view our capabilities and thus our humanity.
The introduction of information technology and especially the Internet has drastically evolved the way we look at ourselves, both on an individual and societal basis. Possibly the biggest innovation in this area is the invention of the Internet and how it has connected people from across the globe to create the ultimate sharing platform. It has completely altered the way we view information and learning. Where before we would have to travel to a location to view its value, to then reading about it in books, to looking it up on your phone and reading about it, until now with the current state of virtual reality we are now able to be there in all sense of the word, without actually being there.
