“There Will Come Soft Rains” is a classic for me. I first read it in middle school, and it wasn’t the theme of dystopian technology in the story that shocked me as much as it was the theme of the end of humanity.
Maybe in 2013 I was just way more adapted to the idea of people fantasizing that one day technology really would be advanced enough to the point where we wouldn’t have to do the chores ourselves anymore. Maybe, in this day and age, these themes are more individual rather than consistently entangled ideas as they seemed to have been for Bradbury.
Ray Bradbury became my favorite author after reading this story. Later on, I found “Fahrenheit 451”, and “The Martian Chronicles”, along with “The Veldt”. My experience reading these stories with similar running themes was different from the experience I got from watching shows like “Star Trek” years after, where the ideas were more about technological advancements helping humanity more than harming it. “Star Trek” made me hopeful, but “The Veldt” made me scared.
Ultimately, I think it’s for the best that I got to experience both themes in life. I can be apprehensive of technology while also appreciate its convenience. I can realize the real dystopian use of face recognition technology targeting BIPOC, and still appreciate telehealth, where people who need counseling can get it anywhere there’s internet.
I chose to come back to this story because I thought it would be interesting to see the way I started off in this class. Revisiting my thoughts on Bradbury’s apprehensions over technological advancements after everything I have learned from this class…makes me a bit more empathetic to his opinion. I can think back to the time we watched the Social Dilemma on Netflix and honestly understand what Bradbury was worried about in stories like “The Veldt”.
However, I think we’ve also come a far way in learning how to protect ourselves and how to navigate through these advancements as well. I’ve been taking a lot of the readings (e.g., The Web We Need to Give to Students, Tufekci’s Ted Talk on Ads, FemTechNet’s godsent guide, etc.) into consideration over how I should reshape my online life and presence, and it’s helped me feel more secure online than I ever have been before. It’s an aspect of this class I’ve been really excited about and have started sharing with my friends, too.
I’m excited to keep learning more about the different aspects of the discipline of digital studies. As I skim through the course schedule of the class, I can imagine how I’d feel like I’m leveling up on my knowledge with this course and how I can continue to implement what I am learning into my everyday life. Maybe someday I’ll look back and see the worried Bradbury in me, and be able to reassure myself that I simply have to keep learning to continue to be optimistic.
