I’m thinking now as I write this about how much technology has shaped our society and our lives… and it just astounds me. I’ve been enjoying coffee much more often in the morning, indulging into my self-perceived guilty pleasure. I absolutely love the taste of coffee, but I’ve always been hesitant to join the caffeine dead—those who cannot function in the morning without their morning cup of joe. Because of this I actually try to restrict my coffee consumption to the weekends and avoid drinking it during the week—the opposite of most people (I’m a weirdo I know).

Anyway, I thought this morning about how much more knowledgeable people are about coffee since the blossoming of the internet. When I was growing up in the 90’s, my aunt was a big coffee drinker. When I spent time with her I was exposed to the love people have for the black drink—my parents didn’t drink coffee at home. And I just wonder how the collective knowledge about coffee has changed. I’m sure just as many people enjoyed their coffee fix in 1994. But did they know as much about it? How did people learn about it—through hearsay, through (gasp) books?

Nowadays, when someone wants to buy a coffee maker for instance, they’re met with a plethora of options online—Keurigs and French presses and espresso machines and traditional coffee makers. There’s so many ways to prepare it, so many different variations, it can be overwhelming. Has our collective coffee drinking experience grown, because of the increased dissemination of information due to the internet? Probably, right?

I think this increased collective knowledge is true for basically every aspect of our society, not just coffee. The average person knows more about a lot more things, because knowledge is so widespread and easy to access. We have computers in our pockets and on our wrists that are more advanced than those used to send the first astronauts to the moon. We have this incredible encyclopedic, continually-evolving database of network connections we call the internet. This technology makes our lives easier, more convenient, and safer. But is it starting to control us? Is it beginning to dictate how we live our lives? Are we putting the full application of this incredible technology to its absolute best use? It’s critical we routinely ask ourselves these questions, so that we remain in control of how we design our life experience. There are no easy answers. I think I’ll go have another coffee, perhaps the caffeine injection will help provide some answers..