Albert Einstein once stated, “I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation full of idiots.” Over the past decade, society has been drastically progressing from a technological standpoint. Technology has made living situations convenient, communication easy, and has helped create an overall progressive society. Though technology has been progressing, the negative impacts, once feared by Einstein, have been progressing and have been becoming more evident.
Throughout the movie Wall-e, the producer Stanton attempts to identify these negative impacts of technology before our society fully becomes the social, political, and progressive nightmare that occurred aboard the technologically advanced spaceship the humans in Wall-e lived on: The Axiom. Though some may argue Stanton’s portrayals of effects of technology on humans are a far exaggeration from our current society’s state, I believe his exploration of the negative impacts of technology on humans experienced abroad the Axiom effectively raises awareness to technological threats already developing in our current society. Through Stanton’s use of specific human/technology interactions and his portrayal of what it is like to not be over-reliant on technology, the potential impacts of technology on our current society are already evident. Though the issues presented by Stanton are alarming, choosing to ignore them, will lead to a society that perfectly parallels that of the people aboard the Axiom. Here are a range of Stanton’s portrayals from most obvious to least.
The first and most obvious portrayal Stanton develops in Wall-e is on the topic of human interaction. Stanton’s exploration of social interaction in relevance to the effects of technology is evident and presented in a comical fashion. This issue is directly explored on the Axiom. When Wall-e is aboard the Axiom and driving around to find the love of his life, “Eve”, Stanton explored the life of two humans abroad the Axiom, Mary and John. The two humans had been both mesmerized by their screens; they drove in circles without the realization of anything that was happening around them. Suddenly, they bumped into each other and that was when the issue of social interaction was presented. Neither John nor Mary had any idea what to say to each other and Stanton made this issue so obvious, that it became comical. Though this comical interaction may seem superficial to use as a parallel to issues in our current society, a study performed by Robert Kraut suggests Stanton’s portrayal of social interaction is not a far reach.
Robert Kraut and his colleagues, a team of psychologists at the University of Carnegie Mellon, conducted a study in 1998 that examined the relation between time spent online with social interaction skills. Through their extensive 24-month study they found a direct relation between face-to-face interaction skills and time spent online. To name a specific example, the team of researchers noted as the test subject’s internet usage increased they became more and more socially withdrawn from their surroundings. This illustration is perfectly portrayed by Stanton, as I explored it above in the example of the interaction between Mary and John. This authentic study performed by Kraut suggest Stanton’s warning on the issue of social interaction is not an exaggeration, and should be addressed before the comical interaction skills seen between John and Mary become reality. Though Stanton directly explores the issue of social interaction, the issue of a repetitive cycle caused by technology is presented in a subtler manner.
The technological issue of repetition Stanton develops isn’t as obvious to the audience as the first issue. Progressing from the scene of Mary And John seeing each other for the first time, Stanton addresses the issue of technology turning life into a repetitive life cycle. As mentioned earlier, before bumping into each other, Mary and John were on their chairs aimlessly driving around Axiom, performing their same daily routines (which is nothing, since everything is taken care of for them). After seeing each other, Mary and John began hanging out and seeing the Axiom like it was a new world. They were finally able to see the swimming pool that they didn’t know existed, and were able to realize the beauty of space when they looked outside! This illustration of repetition explored by Stanton, is similarly noted by Deirdre Pike.
In Deirdre Pike’s book, Enviro Toons, which specifically focuses on analysis of Pixar films, Pike alludes to this notion of being trapped in technological repetition. He described humans on the Axiom being “helpless but comfortably caged animals” (Pike). Pike’s observation is harsh, but effective in depicting the people of the Axiom. This portrayal of being encaged is effective in warning about the issues of technology because through its presentation Stanton is able to indirectly note getting trapped in the technological repetition will lead to being unable to appreciate the world and its beauties. The idea of being “comfortably caged animals” is already progressing through social media. Today, on average millennials spend 3.7 hours per day on their mobile devices (Worldwide). In a sense, phones have turned into a repetitive device Stanton alludes to in Wall-e. While Pikes exploration of “encaged” is explored in a visual viewpoint, it can also be applicable to the issue of decision-making.
Throughout the movie, Stanton presents the issue of lack of human roles in relation to technology through the use of decision-making. Sean Mattie’s peer reviewed article "WALL·E on the Problem of Technology” perfectly examines the issue through specific scenes.
Mattie examines the method of decision making through the use of the scene involving the captain and the “brain of the ship”, Auto. Mattie explains how the captain has to divert from his reliance on technological decision-making that he has grown accustomed to on Axiom and make a choice whether to return to Earth on his own. The interaction observed by Mattie, between Auto and the captain, perfectly illustrates potential threats of technology in current society in relation to lack of decision making or “mental” encagement. When watching the scene, one could view Stanton’s portrayal and connect it to current reliance on google maps for navigation. Today 54% of smartphone users use google maps (Richter). If google maps went down, humans would be helpless! Like the people on the Axiom, who have grown accustom to decisions being made by the robots, our society has already begun to be accustomed to decisions being made by an application (in this example, Google). While Stanton’s warning of lack of decision making skills can be seen through specific scenes like this, what I believe is Stanton’s most effective strategy often goes unnoticed as it is the least obvious portrayal of reliance on technology.
In contrast to the film’s portrayal of humans as problematically over-reliant on technology, the robot Wall-e represents what it means to not be reliant on technology. The first account of Wall-e not being reliant on technology occurs when the robot Eve comes down to Earth to scan for plants. The two robots, Eve and Wall-e, fall in love (love is characteristic more commonly associated with humans). By using this illustration, Stanton is able to show a characteristic of humans that is lost with the reliance of technology aboard the Axiom. A second illustration of Wall-e not being influence by technology occurs when he is on the Axiom and has to make a decision. When one of the robots abroad the Axiom attempts to dispose of a plant (a chance for new life on Earth), Wall-e makes the decision to save the plant. By illustrating the decision-making of Wall-e, Stanton once again gives Wall-e a human characteristic the actual humans abroad the Axiom don’t illustrate. While I believe the movie Wall-e accurately presents ongoing technological issues, some people could suggest Stanton’s method of addressing the issues associated with technology as an extreme exaggeration.
One example viewers might consider an extreme exaggeration is in the reason for leaving earth. In the movie, humans left the earth because of a lack of resources and pollution caused by progressed technology. This could be viewed as an exaggeration because today technology doesn’t only have negative effects on society. For example, technology has reduced greenhouse emissions and worked to maintain our society, rather than completely destroy it. This argument is valid and in the closing scene of Wall-e Stanton addresses it. In the closing scene, Stanton has a positive portrayal of technology to show the potential benefits if the negative effects through the movie are taken seriously and reformed. In the closing scene, the robots and humans are working hand and hand to make earth livable again. Although Stanton is focused on the dangers of over-reliance on technology, this closing depiction explores other outcomes of humans with technology, and thus helps illustrate how Stanton’s portrayal throughout the movie isn’t an exaggeration.
While some suggest Stanton, through the use of the movie Wall-e, exaggerates the issues of technology to a matter too extreme, I believe Stanton effectively portrays potential issues caused by technology that are bound for our current society if change does not occur. Through the scene of Mary and John bumping into each other Stanton effectively notes potential issues of social interaction. Through the analysis of Mattie and the scene between the Captain and Auto, Stanton was able to accurately note the effects of technology on decision making. Through the use of the robot Wall-e, Stanton is able to portray a clear picture of the actual life of a human without the negative influence of technology. With the help of the study performed by Kraut and his colleagues, the observations of Mattie, and the notion of “caged animals” from Pike, the effectiveness of Stanton’s portrayal is evident. Although the impacts of technology in Wall-e might seem hyperbolic, if the messages Stanton presents aren’t taken seriously, the issues which are already becoming apparent in our society, have the potential to become a complete reality.