If there is something that really gets me going, it is the idea technology somehow makes people worse than they already are.
It is an argument I am so tired of hearing, but one I have definite opinions about because I find it so hard to comprehend there are people who genuinely believe communication technology makes the world an unhappier place.
Of course smartphones, computers, tablets and their social media capabilities have their downsides.
There are now more platforms on which people are able to show their truly ugly sides, and that really gets to you when you spend almost any amount of time on public social media sites.
But people have always been horrible; social media and iPhones did not start bullying.
The only thing that has changed is now people can be vile bullies with anonymity and, a lot of the time, with impunity.
This is a huge problem, and one I do not have answers to so I am not going to tackle it here.
What I take issue with is people who seem to think using your phone on the commute home makes you an antisocial beast whose soul is being sucked into a void where community and personhood are facing inevitable destruction.
There is actually a work of so-called art going around at the moment depicting people's faces being literally sucked into their phone screens.
My first response to this faux-critical nonsense is to note people have been solitary and self-involved for a lot longer than we have had smartphones.
Before touch screens, people listened to Walkmans, or read the newspaper, or sat in silence while they were on the bus or train or waiting in a doctor's office.
My desire not to speak to anyone while I am in between activities has little to do with my iPhone and much more to do with my desire for personal space, in a world where living day-to-day requires a lot of different and tiring interactions with people I do not know, and subjects and tasks I do not necessarily care about.
When I have five minutes on my own, I want to talk to someone I know or I want to engage with something I find important.
I want a moment to catch up with myself.
With this in mind, I think probably smartphones make more sense to my generation because we have grown up with ever-increasing stimulation and we are used to being constantly occupied.
I know I am not satisfied unless I am doing three or four things at once; I need a never-ending stream of content to keep me occupied.
For that reason I am always reading something, listening to something, watching something, or talking to someone on my phone while I am using my computer to talk to someone else while I am also watching a movie, with 10 other tabs open on Chrome so I can flick between things to keep me going.
In this light, while people are using their phones or iPods for time to themselves, they might also be using them because they want to be connected and stimulated.
There is very little that is vegetative about technology, particularly when it prompts communication.
For example, right now I am writing this column, but five minutes ago my flatmate (who is sitting in the next room) sent me a 10-second video of her pet rat trying to steal food out of her hands.
It made me smile because I love communicating with people I care about, and I like it when they send me things they know I will find interesting although I cannot be there to experience them at first hand.
It does not matter if it is my flatmate or a friend who lives on the other side of the world, my phone and my computer and various social media platforms bring me closer to the people I care about, wherever I am and whatever I am doing, and I do not think there is anything wrong with people preferring to text message their close friends instead of chatting to whoever is sitting next to them in a cafe.
Technology does not shut the world out; it just makes moments that do not need to be quiet and solitary a lot more engaging and a lot more comfortable.
Millie Lovelock is a Dunedin student.
