At the risk of sounding like a total curmudgeon, I'm going to go ahead and say... I don't need your new fangled tech-nol-o-gy. Don't get me wrong, there are a ton of tech devices that I use and appreciate on a daily basis. I like my cellphone, and my TV, and my Internets, and I appreciate the new bank machines that let me insert a check without all the annoying deposit slips. But I think that we're all a little too plugged in, and I think that's eventually going to have a severe impact on our way of life, and not necessarily in a good way.
I think it's amazing that my friend's daughter can already navigate a computer better than my mother. But knowing how to navigate a computer and being able to crunch complex math equations are two different things. Technology makes our youth appear smarter than we were at the same age, but really, they're just manipulating their environment in the same way that we did. The toys are just a little different. No one thinks it's amazing that 30 years ago kids could turn a TV on by themselves and find the channel with Saturday morning cartoons. And 30 years from now people are probably not going to think it's amazing that kids could turn on a computer and open a browser.
There's a price for the technology that we possess and manipulate. Things come a lot easier to people now, and so they have to struggle a little less. Figure things out a little less. Learn a little less. Part of how we got to this technological age is that people were curious about the world, how it worked, and how we could solve simple labor issues. There was a creativity and curiosity combined with a more affluent way of life that enabled this gigantic leap forward in the last century. With continents conquered, oceans explored, land computer-modeled and mapped, the world simply doesn't hold the same mystery that it once did. You're not going to find a lost city and then have it fade into mystery again. It's going to be mapped by satellites and forever captured.
Most kids don't spend their time thinking about the next invention they're going to create or the next adventure they're going to go on. They think about how they're going to be the next rock star, basketball/football star, trophy wife, artist, or movie star. Which is why you see our president pleading with kids to love science and math. We're heading down a dangerous path where we could actually end up seeing our leaps in scientific advances actually reverse and retard.
Maybe that's not a bad thing, though. Maybe we need to go back to a simpler time where we were more connected with our neighbors than we were our stuff. More time making mudpies, taking Sunday drives, trying to find that four leaf clover in a 6-foot patch of mundane clovers, or even running through a field all Little House on the Prairie-style. More time cloud-watching and wondering how the universe works, which will eventually lead us back to an age of exploration that will lead us to new worlds. (they'd have to stop cutting NASA's budget for that to happen, though.)
Of course all of that is out the window if someone ever figures how we can reasonably live under the sea in a huge domed underwater city like my grandfather's 1940's book predicted we'd be doing in 2000. So awesome.
(as a bonus thought, it is coincidence that women rights and technological advances have had similar explosions of advancement in the last century? Feeling the pressure, gentlemen? Discuss.)
2 comments:
I don't think previous generations weren't dreamers; past generations certainly dreamt of being sports stars, movie stars, artists, et al. If anything, younger generations today may be dreamers longer, or refuse to grow up until later in their lives, but that's not so much a derivative of technological advances as it is a side-product of American society today.
Overall, kids have it easier today, not just because of technology, but because parental strictness and responsibility itself has waned. And we haven't had a generational conundrum that forced previous generations to get their shit together; we didn't have a Great Depression, a World War, etc. What we do have, is a more affluent middle class that expects all of their children to go to college, an extremely poor system for developing skilled labor, and a generation taught that they are special and can coast along in life.
Access to fancy technology is simply one small factor in this generation's misaligned idea that they deserve everything they want. It's not the crux of the problem, however.
Yes, technology has made it possible for some to "skip" learning certain life skills, or at least delay them, sometimes indefinitely, and that's not always good. But *ahem* kids have always hated science and math, or at least a majority of them have. And that's okay---some kids will like it (such as yours truly), and breakthroughs will still be made. When we really need to live on the ocean floor (if that ever happens), we will figure out how to. As for the women and technology thing... Interesting that you bring that up---I just read something about that. Much of the technology (washing machines, microwaves, etc.) has made running a household easier, so that women could have roles outside of the home. The technology mostly came first---it is not here because of the women. The women have jobs because of it.
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