Recently I have been acutely aware of the giant leaps society has made in technology and the changes it has brought, even in my lifetime. This morning, as I was waiting on the train, a guy walks by with his mobile phone held up to his shoulder, blasting some incomprehensible rap song as loud as the straining speaker could blare it. After he walked by, I had to chuckle a bit. I remember in my early years walking by guys on the street that would carry these ENORMOUS "boom boxes" on their shoulders. Back then, it was almost a fashion accessory - you always had it around just in case you wanted to spontaneously break out in a breakdance routine.
Even the cellular phone is an advance beyond compare. Why, back when I was a young lad, telephones still had cords attaching them to their receivers. Even in the 80s the cellular phone was SO large it could double as a formidable bludgeoning device. My, how far we've come.
Granted, things haven't just become smaller -- like TV sets and cars. Some things have appeared that were never there before - like remote controls and laptop computers.
Now THERE is a dichotomy. One thing to make our lives lazier and more fat-ass, and another to make it more complicated and stressful.
Back in my very first job, I resisted getting a laptop like the plague. I felt (and still do) that work should stay at work, and home should stay at home. There really wasn't anything I needed from that laptop once I left work. But there you have it.. A culture built around work 'til you drop, and then take it home with you so you can plop on the sofa and eat your Ben & Jerry's and watch Dynasty and listen to your waistline expand. That is why someone had to invent the remote control, which led to offering 3,000 channels to surf through. Back in the day, we had 4 channels - ABC, NBC, CBS and PBS. And when it comes right down to it, we hardly watched TV!
But, friends, here we are - lazy, overworked and over-communicated. A trait we Americans brought on ourselves. Now we have a whole "diet pill" industry out there catering to the lazy folks who don't/can't get up to work off that extra helping of cheese doodles. "Hook this electrode to your (flabby) stomach and watch abs appear in days!" I'm here to tell you, all that does is make you blubber jiggle - just saying. BUT people buy it.
I guess my (guilty) point behind all this is to ask, how much better off are we with these personal luxuries? We've improved the efficiency of autos, yet we move even further away from our jobs, only to request that we be granted "telework" capabilities so we can stay at home and surf the web and learn how to become even more antisocial. We can file through Facebook and Twitter as our communication substitute and never need to see another person again. Let's get married by text message or FaceTime. Pretty soon we won't know whether it's Spring or Fall and will need to rely on the Weather Channel app to tell us.
Yes, my pets, life was much better when I walked to school barefoot in the snow.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
And the fact that it was uphill both ways helped burn some extra calories too!
ReplyDeleteOh darn... Jay took my line!
ReplyDeleteAs odd as it may seem, I am still one of those people that resist bigger tv's with more channels. I watch very little tv anymore & have been that way more often than not throughout my life. Not to say I haven't had my moments of tv sprees.. I just find that if I don't have one, I don't really miss it.
Unfortunately... I do rely on my newly acquired laptop as a school tool... And am quite attached to my iPhone for email, FB, web-surfing, texting & even an occasional phone call!
I miss the 'reach out and touch someone' reality of getting a real-life-arms-surrounding-you-hug, but in hectic times, it's nice to know that a virtual hug is naught but a text message away!
...and by the way... Love the blog!