Technology. It's Awesome.

I've been having this discussion randomly with several friends and family members, including some my age and even younger, who are lamenting the way technology has made life so easy, taken away kids character and work ethic, made everything a browser game. Absolute nonsense.

I'm not directing this at anyone, and some who I was talking to actually agree with me, but discuss VCR's nostalgically rather than lamenting their demise. I have a lot of nostalgia for the 1990's, but I wouldn't trade my life in 2013 for any other moment in my life so far. So I'll make that distinction now. Nostalgia is a cool thing, just remember that you are thinking highlight reel, not day-to-day.

Anyway, every generation has new technology and the ones who didn't grow up with it have two choices. Get with the times or talk about the "good ol' days." I think what you choose says way more about you than about the technology being debated.

Here's a few of the arguments against our internet age:


Kids aren't social anymore - Yes they are, in fact with facebook, twitter and kakaotalk they are probably more social than we were. They can talk to their friends whenever they want. Twenty years ago I phoned my friend, if he wasn't home too bad. I stayed home and played Super Nintendo. Now I text or chat and we meet. Heck I want to play video games with my friends, we'd better all come over and take turns on my Super Nintendo. Now we can all get on skype and all play a game together. I have done this on a simple level playing Civilization with Mike over skype and the internet. He is in Seoul and I am in Daegu. we can't exactly play Nintendo after school, but we can do that. How is that LESS social? Since it's possible to communicate over huge distances using a device that fits in your pocket you can talk to friends in London, Bangkok, LA and Vancouver AT THE SAME TIME. Of course it's not as good as face to face and it never will be, but how many kids today actually think it is? How many people don't travel to visit family because they have the internet? Not many.

Kids today are shut ins - Yes, SOME are. Some kids spend all day inside playing World of Warcraft and have a social life based exclusively around that. It's kinda sad. In the 70's they had Dungeons and Dragons. However, today I go outside regularly and always manage to see people under 30, so they can't all be weird shut ins.

Information is just a click of a button now - See I can't even begin to figure out whats wrong here. You want to know what the capital city of Tajikistan is. Okay let's go dig out the encyclopedia set or go down to the library or start calling friends and.... well I don't care that much, do you? Quick, what won best picture in 1965? who was AL rookie of the year in 1947? What were the years Benjamin Disraeli prime minister of Britain? Whats the population of Goa? Who won the Nobel prize in physics in 1993? Those five questions could take all day to answer twenty years ago. Now they take all of three minutes. I can learn five new things in three minutes. Why is that bad? By that logic the printing press was bad because it made books accessible to everyone and allowed newspapers.

Kids today are unhealthy - Not untrue, but equally true in 1970's. Processed and fast foods contribute to obesity and a lack of energy in kids and are far bigger problems than lack of exercise.

*sorry, while writing at this stage my friend Bobby msg'd me on skype. He is from California and is currently in Vietnam. I'm hearing about his trip before he heads out for the day.... damn technology*

anyway yeah, forget kids here, if you are an adult and you cut out fast food and canned food you will get in better shape without exercising (though it helps a lot). The day we decided that processed meat was as good as real meat, pasteurized milk was as good as real milk and canned veggies were the same as real veggies in the day we started getting fat and lazy. Wanna learn more about living a healthy lifestyle. Google it.

Kids today have no character - That's what your parents said about you and what their parents said about them and what their parents said about them all the way back to an ancient Egyptian grandmother going on about these new fangled Heiroglyphs and how kids today (2500BC) don't need to remember anymore. Yeah, they spend lots of time talking with friends and not doing homework and playing video games and being lazy and rude. Of course at 16 we all spent our free time studying physics and learning languages didn't we?



Anyway, I'll sum it up like this: I have, on my desk right now, three devices that together give me access to every book ever written in an easy to use format, every fact and study ever done, the sum knowledge of the human race in a nutshell. They hold all of my media and entertainment and allow me to access whatever other media I want almost instantly. I can communicate instantly with friends and family on multiple continents in real time. They are a laptop, a smartphone and an e-reader. Yes, some people use it to look at pictures of cats or find out what Paris Hilton is doing (or who). But the internet did not invent frivolous entertainment (anyone remember the Gong-Show or Inside Hollywood) it's just a new medium for it. But stack against that the idea that you can learn whatever you want, whenever you want. Go to youtubedocumentaries.com. Watch hundreds of documentaries free. Browse wikipedia and look at the reference section at the bottom if you want to get academically reviewed books on the subject. I'm not sure what character we lost or what fun we are missing out on but it seems that the gains FAR outweigh the losses. Also, I'm sure that wooden sailing ships, chariots, bronze tools and silent films all built character and were fun too, but anyone want to bring them back?

It seems like we all agree that new inventions are an amazing, wonderful thing right up until we hit about 25. From then on it becomes this useless stuff that makes us lazy and characterless. Though it seems to be the same age of 25 whether you are 30 or 50 or 80. I think the truth is that your view on our changing world says more about you than it does about our changing world.