Forgotten / Delayed Generations
So, I've had the following on my list of things to do for over three months and finally decided to act on it:
"post about the failed generations.
This is entirely based on observation, but every time society generates a technological advancement that we aren't prepared for there are massive problems. The examples are becoming far more prevalent then in the past (imho of course). Some historical examples off the top of my head: Computers Initially geared towards only those that knew how to build them, then those in the business world, then finally the mass market consumer. Think back to when you were first introduced to computers and how many people "didn't get it". Look at the articles now about how quickly kids pick up new technology and use computers with relative ease. The phase of adoption passed about a decade ago where something so new disrupts an entire society and finally is becoming the norm. The problem with this though is that very little planning went into how computers would be integrated into our daily lives when they first started being produced. This created a massive gap of have's vs have-not's that we're still unsure how to bridge. Do your parents or grandparents use or know how to use a computer? Mine still can barely use cell-phones. It's not cause old people are 'stupid' or resistent to change, it's that they weren't eased into the adoption process. You can't just jump circuits midstream and expect huge groups of people to get lost or ignored in the aftermath. Nukes Without making this about nuclear proliferation or anything terribly political; No one believed with nukes could do to the world when first announced to the public in WW2. Japan certainly didn't take the US seriously when it came to them. That's cause the scale of destruction wasn't just escalating from tank to bigger tank. It was jumping from battle-field to theatre of war in terms of scope of destruction. The Internet It's long lost now, but remember the news stories about internet addicts that started to pop up in the late 90's? People didn't know how to handle a world in which they were "always on" (or even had the option). Internet cafe's (which seem so silly now) were the common place for hackers and addicts a-like to hang out and never leave. Again, this reduced the number of people that could participate in the future as technology is iterative and old technical skills lead to easier adoption of older ones. "Super"-Phones Which all leads me to the reason I started thinking down this pipe-dream in the first place: Always connected, web-enabled "super" smart-phones. The lines between online and offline are blurring completely now. People are not only starting to lose the ability to unplug, they're losing their humanity. Study's are showing that we're less able to be empathetic then we once were and just look at the school violence and comment lurkers on the internet. Is this really the future we want to create for ourselves? For too long, my entire life, I've seen technology march onward at the expense of humanity and if you think that's a bit out there then look at some economies of scale. The gap between rich and poor is becoming greater all the time and it's because of technology. How do you think Walmart was able to crush most competition? It wasn't because they are evil, it was because their supply chain systems are among the top 3 in the world. I only say top two because the only other I find to be more impressive is Amazon's and UPS'. Just because we CAN do something doesn't mean that we always should. Just because we can be connected all the time, doesn't mean we have to be or should be. All people need downtime not just from work but from circuits in general. When was the last time you went for a walk? Or just looked another person in the eyes and deeply connected with them instead of tweeting, FBing, IMing, or texting them? When people become just avatars in our interactions with them is when they stop becoming human in our eyes. A loss of humanity leads to a loss in empathy which only leads to worse and worse things. Technological change has left previous generations adrift, let's make sure those that are "always on" aren't the ones missing out ont he humanity that the non-connected were able to maintain. Put down the screen, turn off the TV; unplug from machines and turn to one another and do real connecting.
