What Technology Takes From Us – And How to Take It Back

By Rebecca Solnit
The Guardian, 29 January 2026

In an age dominated by rapid technological advancements, particularly artificial intelligence, society is reckoning with what these innovations increasingly take from us: genuine human connection, meaningful engagement with the world, and the simple joy of doing things ourselves rather than outsourcing them to machines. While technology promises convenience and efficiency, according to Rebecca Solnit’s insightful essay in The Guardian, it often robs us of the experiences that imbue life with depth, richness, and belonging.

A Lost Art of Presence

Solnit draws on personal memories to illuminate what technology threatens to eclipse. She recalls summers spent wading into a blackberry-lined creek, picking fruit intimately connected with the rhythms of nature. The process was as valuable as the product: the feel of thorny canes, the changing colors of berries, the hum of bees, dragonflies dancing above the water, and the peace of quiet immersion in an unmediated natural space. This kind of engagement connects us deeply to our environment and ourselves — and it cannot be reduced to metrics or shortcuts.

This reflection brings forward what environmental activist Chip Ward termed “the tyranny of the quantifiable.” Modern culture—exacerbated by Silicon Valley’s doctrines—prioritizes maximizing outcomes (having) while minimizing effort and engagement (doing). The true worth of activities, from gardening to social interaction, is found in their processes and inherent experiences, not merely their immediate, measurable results.

Silicon Valley’s Ideology of Efficiency and Its Cost

Technology companies have propelled a narrative centered on convenience, efficiency, productivity, and profit. Silicon Valley’s vision encourages minimizing physical presence in the world and maximizing time online and at work, a shift that alienates individuals and erodes public life. Places where social interactions once routinely occurred—local shops, markets, community spaces—are dwindling or becoming automated, curtailing spontaneous human contact that fosters social networks and democratic engagement.

Solnit highlights how this withdrawal has a compounding effect: as public spaces and communal habits diminish, individuals grow less comfortable or skilled in direct human interaction. For many, this translates not only into isolation but also a diminished resilience for navigating real-world social complexities. Disconnection fosters a palpable yearning for genuine contact but can also lead to social numbness or unrealistic expectations for interpersonal relationships.

The Mechanization of Everyday Interactions

The shift from face-to-face exchanges to digital interfaces becomes emblematic of this trend. Solnit shares observations from San Francisco, where ordering food increasingly means interacting with a touchscreen rather than a human server. Although marketed as quicker and more efficient, this system consumes more time for some—especially those unfamiliar with the technology—and sacrifices simple social exchanges that enrich daily life. Even service workers lose the social dimensions of their roles, becoming cogs in mechanized processes.

In bookstores—a refuge of human interaction—Solnit encounters a rare smile and a genuine conversation, moments now seen as exceptions in a tech-saturated culture. People, particularly younger generations immersed in technology, often avoid eye contact altogether, reflecting how deep-rooted this aversion to direct human presence has become.

Outsourcing Our Thinking and Feeling

More concerning is the growing reliance on AI tools that claim to replace not only physical effort but intellectual and emotional labor. Advertisements for AI products boast of standing “never thinking alone again,” overlooking the irreplaceable value of solitary reflection, creativity, and personal communication.

Psychologist Sherry Turkle warns that the screen culture undermines our capacity for solitude—an essential ingredient for empathy, thoughtfulness, and independent identity formation. The retreat into mediated interactions may satisfy superficial needs but risks eroding the very faculties that sustain meaningful relationships and self-awareness.

Reclaiming What Technology Takes

Solnit’s essay is not a call to abandon technology wholesale but a plea for conscious engagement. There is a way to “take back” what technology has seized: by valuing being alongside others in the world, by resisting the compulsion to reduce every action to its utility, and by nurturing the messy, unpredictable connections that foster belonging and resilience.

Whether it’s gardening, a walk in nature, speaking with a neighbor, or merely sitting quietly with one’s thoughts, these acts stand as antidotes to the alienation wrought by digital convenience. Reclaiming such experiences requires collective effort—recognizing the cost of “progress” and choosing presence, process, and connection over mere efficiency.

Rebecca Solnit’s reflections remind us that technology should serve human values, not supplant them. In an era when AI offers unprecedented capabilities, the greatest challenge may lie not in mastering machines but in mastering our relationship with them—and with each other. Only by consciously reclaiming spaces for embodied, unmediated experience can we safeguard the parts of ourselves that technology, if unexamined, threatens to dissolve.