Thoreau on Technology

156 years since Thoreau published ‘Walden’, his criticism of technology remains as vital as ever. Alexis Madrigal at The Atlantic says we need reminding how to use technology well. “Looking back at Thoreau, though, it’s important to realize that he was as out of sync with his own times as he sometimes seems with ours. He’s part of a long-standing American counterculture, the one that wonders whether all of our irritable striving to build and buy things is worth the bother. … In a country where so many gamely adopt the latest new gadget, we need our Thoreaus, not to stop the profusion of technology, but simply to remind us to use them well. There are spaces shot through our massively complex society to find ‘Simplicity! Simplicity! Simplicity!’ by simply deciding to look for it.”