Winston theory

So my mom told me today that we were going to try and talk my grandfather into getting those buttons that hang around old people's necks in case they get hurt while at home. Even though my grandparents live with us, my family is not home most of the day. It's basically my grandmother and grandfather there by themselves. My grandfather's balance has been failing and he's been falling over more and more lately. Luckily I was home the few times it happened so I could help him get up and there were no major injuries but imagine if I wasn't? My grandmother is certainly not strong enough to lift him up nor will she be able to be level headed if he was hurt. She would panic and not know what to do.

So my family decided to try out those new red button necklaces for my grandfather. They have a link to a certain phone in the house that will automatically dial 911 for you in case of emergency. This way, my parents and I feel safer leaving them at home without having to worry about him falling or worse my grandmother falling. It's actually quite a brilliant technology. It's basically a remote for your phone to dial in case of emergency.

This reminded of Winston's theory about technology being incorporated by society to fit our everyday life. Since man kind began, people have been getting old. It's not something new and it's certainly never going to change. There was no way we could solve the factors that come with being old: loss of hearing, loss of balance, loss of eyesight etc. Instead, we created technologies to adapt to these changes that all of our society was going through. We now have things such as hearing aides, reading glasses, contacts, cataracts surgery etc. This button is just another one of those technologies that allows for old people to adjust to daily life easier. It makes their lives and the lives of their loved one more stress free and easy. That's the point of technology in the first place isn't it?

I managed to find this commercial on youtube about the product that my grandfather is currently testing. This began running in 1987 and continues to run today with different people and different scenarios.