**🔼 Up:** [[Attunement]] **\#️⃣ Tags:** #Dictionary #Philosophy > **🌱 Planted:** Fri 31 January 2025 --- ***If [[Poetic Attunement]] transforms our entire way of being, Technological Attunement distorts our entire way of being.*** When [[Martin Heidegger]] inquired into the nature of being, he noticed that the technology we interact with profoundly shapes our way of being, so much so he identified it as a certain kind of inauthentic attunement, which he called "technological attunement". Heidegger speaks of technology not only in the sense of electronic hardware and software, but as the myriad of tools and capacities that are always available and at our disposal in our everyday lives—what he referred to as "standing reserve". Our phones, computers, cars, tables, chairs and even the utensils in our kitchen are capacities in "standing reserve", ready to be utilised and exploited. The effect of having all this technology available at our fingertips is that it creates a profound pull and tendency to reduce everything in our experience to mere objects—resources to be exploited in order to secure our safety or gratification—including other human beings. Think about the way you interact with others while you fulfil simple day-to-day tasks. A couple days ago, I had to call up my electricity provider because they accidentally double charged me. It was another thing added to the to-do list and I'll admit, I was a little frustrated. While the customer service rep and I exchanged common pleasantries, we were each using each other to effectively tick a box or meet a goal—me to sort my billing issues out, and them to get paid and make a living. When we are attuning to the world in this way, we're not orienting towards life for its inherent [[Truth, Beauty & Goodness]]. We don't see others for the alive and unique organism they are, and we don't meet ourselves or them with a sense of curiosity, joy, wonder, understanding and compassion. We simply don't have the time, nor the patience. Instead, this way of attuning becomes like a distorted filter through which we perceive and interact with the world, ultimately altering our fundamental humanity and entire way of being. While Heidegger calls this mode of attunement "technological attunement", I believe "survival attunement" is much more fitting. If everyone is in a rush, stressed, inundated with tasks and overworked whilst trying to make ends meet, it is no wonder why we're technologically attuned, unable to give our children the type of [[Our normal developmental needs are met through empathic attunement and mutual recognition|empathic attunement]] they require—we're living in straight up survival mode. # See Also - [[Poetic Attunement]] - [[Change Agenda]] - [[The Definitive Guide to Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve#Understanding the Autonomic Nervous System with Polyvagal Theory|Understanding the Autonomic Nervous System with Polyvagal Theory]], specifically the sympathetic spinal chain. - Whilst Heidegger wasn't specifically addressing the quality of [[Our normal developmental needs are met through empathic attunement and mutual recognition|Empathic Attunement]] with regard to the way in which we raise our children, the effects of this survival/technological way of attuning along with the [[Achievement Society enforces control through internal self-exploitation|achievement based society]] we seem to find ourselves in certainly highlights its impact.