Oh look! A squirrel!
Published Mon, Feb 8 2010 8:50 PM
Sometimes I wish that we didn’t have all of the modern technology that we enjoy. When I was a very young boy we didn’t have a television – at least not that I can remember for a long time. We had radio and LP recordings. We had books, and we had toys – real, physical toys. If we were bored, we read or we went outside to play.
I remember my parents’ stereo set. It was bigger than the table that I have my printer, monitor and keyboard on now. That’s it behind my brother in this photo (yes, this was a long time ago).
Give it enough time though and technology creeps into our lives until we think we can’t do without it. There’s the television front and center in the room one Christmas morning. We’d had it for a while – a small black and white set.
My dad had an interesting way of preserving historic events. In 1969 when men landed on the moon, my dad recorded it – with his camera. Yes, I know it says “Live Color TV Pictures of Moon”, but we only had a black and white TV. Still, technology was really on the move.
Yesterday, I played World of Warcraft on my computer in my room in Woods Cross, UT. My son was playing at the same time on his laptop in Covington, WA. We were both watching the Super Bowl, shooting “leper gnomes”, bears, and snow leapards in the imaginary land of Dun Morogh – just outside Gnomeragon and Brewnall Village. I’ve got a big screen projection TV at home that he plays other video games on at times. I’d guess it’s five times the size of that old stereo, and my stereo fits in my pocket.
At home we can pause live television and re-wind it if we miss something. I used to pause whatever I was watching when there was too much noise in the house. We’ve got DVDs, MP3 players, headphones, computers, and all sorts of gadgets. I receive about 150 e-mail messages a day on my personal accounts (only about 20 or so are spam) – not to mention the e-mail I get at work. I’m sitting behind a computer monitor for ten to twelve hours a day. It seems anymore that it takes a special event to get outside.
Unless the electricity is working and the internet is up – my kids are bored. Even with them both available sometimes they’re still bored – or at least they complain that there’s nothing to do. Pink Floyd was right. “Got thirteen channels of shit on the T.V. to choose from.”1 Well, it’s more like 250 channels anymore and there’s seldom anything worth watching. Even as I write this I’m listening to the “Celt in a Twist” podcast, doing a search on the Internet to verify the lyrics I just quoted, updating my iPhone’s OS and downloading a few more podcasts – even though my internet connection is dog slow.
With all of the entertainment devices we have today is it any wonder we’re putting on weight? Forgetting our history? Losing touch with one another? Losing touch with the world?
- Oh look! A squirrel!
1“Nobody Home” — Pink Floyd, The Wall, 1979
Interestingly enough, as I'm lamenting the sapping of our intelligence and imagination that comes from too much info-tainment The Hill's RSS feed is touting The need for broadband Internet adoption. I don't believe in coincidence. That's all we need, another NGO lobbying our government to pursue yet another program we don't really need government to get involved in.
And finally, some GOOD news. Thanks to the snow in Washington D.C. there will be no votes tomorrow in the House of Representatives. Climate Change finally does something good for the United States. While our Congress is out playing in the snow they aren’t doing anything to make our economy even worse – even if it’s only for a day. But wouldn't you know it... Steny Hoyer made the announcement via Twitter!
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David responded with:
 | I have so far managed to at least avoid 3G connectivity via a smartphone of any kind. I know I'll probably feel compelled to do it someday, but I can at least get in my Wayback Machine (my car), travel back to the 20th Century and be disconnected.
;-) |
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