In reading a recent article on “Network World” by Patrick Thibedeau entitled “Gartner: By 2020, you’ll say more to a machine than to your spouse” I was stunned by some of the predictions. Although some of the predictions challenge your thinking, it’s clear that IT will impact your marriage.
What remains to be seen is how much you’ll allow those changes to impact your marriage.
When attending graduate school, one of the degrees offered at the university was ‘future studies’. At the time, I dismissed them as dreamy eyed students who majored in fantasies. I didn’t realize then that being aware of future trends would be as important as it is. It helps when you have some advanced warning about changes coming your way.
Although I initially dismissed the futurists at the time, I no longer do so. The radical changes we see in society today were once somebody’s dreams. So when I see articles about future trends, I think it’ll help you see potential changes coming rather than being blind sided by the future.
Whether or not you’ll spend more time talking to a machine than your spouse remains to be seen. What is clear is that you will be talking more to machines in the future than you do now. The ‘augmented reality’ of machines is an issue that you and your marriage will face.
These changes pose several challenges for marriages.
- Increased risk of isolation. The more time people spend with their technological gadgets, the less time they spend in interpersonal contact.
- The risk of infidelity will increase. The big change for infidelity is that some will be ‘virtual’. This will raise the question of whether virtual cheating is actually cheating. The risk of actual cheating will also increase as isolation increases as well.
- The threat of virtual or robot infidelity will increase. With improvements in technology and artificial body vagina parts already being made, the threat is real. Especially when they’re already swamped with requests for the products. It’s no longer hussies wanting your spouse, there will soon be the threat of sex robots hitting on your spouse. This poses new challenges for business trips and late nights at the office.
- The potential of stimulation overload poses a threat to marriages as well. With all the augmented reality you’ll be surrounded with, how will your spouse react to a real man or real woman? When reality has trouble competing with enhanced virtual people, it threatens your marriage.
The article points out other changes that technology will bring. Although many of them will make life easier and not pose threats to your marriage, they will bring changes to your life and lifestyle.
If your relationship with your spouse is not at it’s best, now is the time to start making it what you want it to be.
Best Regards,
Jeff
