Life is
weird. There are people who remember picture shows and the depression
(my grandma), people who remember the family getting their first
color TV (my Dad). Then there are people born late 80s early 90s,
like myself, who, although might have been born right before cell
phones became popular and everyone had a computer in their house,
were the first generation to experience instant messenger and
blogging and social networking sites. I had AIM and an online journal
at the age of eleven and played yahoo pool. I'm guessing my parents
don't actually know that or even thought about things like that. Now
there are kids younger than me who didn't see these things come to
life, but just know of these things intrinsically it seems. My four
year old niece asks to play on my smart phone every time I see her.
Note: I
recognize another generation between my father and I in the 70s and
early 80s. I feel like that can be glommed onto mine. Their cell
phone was the pager. But they still experienced the older traditional
“go play outside” mindset, while still coming inside to play
video games at times.
Now I don't
mean to sound self affirming, but I think my generation has it best.
Sure we may have had AIM and all these new cool gadgets and got cell
phones in our teens, but we played tag in addition to our video games. Is it me
or do kids these days just not get enough connection with other kids
and the outside world. In the Communication Age everyone seems more
connected, but I think relationships actually suffer. Let's say I have 200 Facebook friends, but maybe ten real friends (I
didn't actually count and hyperbole is fun). What if instead of
hanging out on Facebook I went out and cultivated more
friendships? Maybe I'd have less Facebook friends; maybe I'd get more
actual friends.
Here's
another thing and I'm not sure WHO to blame on this one. Maybe the
first group of people on Earth were responsible, but NO ONE seems to
think of consequences. Whether it be burning trash in London in the
early 1900s to all the plastics that are killing our Earth. The
beginning film business in 1916, giving Mary Pickford a 2 million
dollar contract for two years making a crazy high standards for actor
pay increasing the economic divide. Or what about how when we eat a
burger most of us don't think about the insane brutality that animal
were consuming went through for us to eat it (no I'm not a vegetarian
meat is too yum). What about the internet. Seriously look up
“Facebook servers” online. The internet isn't just floating in
the air. How about e-waste or any kind of waste. Putting your trash
in a rectangular box doesn't make it disappear. How about the
brutality of online avatars. Just because you can be anonymous
doesn't mean you should be mean. People are the anonymity is so
freeing. I've been there, I've done it. Everyone makes mistakes.
Seriously though, there are movies and news stories about the harm
this cruelty can cause.
I feel like
I came from the lucky generation, because in a way we had it both
ways. We grew up with the “olden time way” and the new stuff
slowly leaked into our lives. I think kids are overloaded these days.
Too bored. Sometimes too violent and creepy (not kidding or maybe it's just my family??). Too separated from consequences.
Then again, I could be wrong. Considering with all this crazy technology out there these kids are the first generation to really experience this so I can't go making judgements when they are still kids. Additionally, I wasn't around to compare their experiences with kid's
experiences in the 40s or whatever. I suppose it's not like there
wasn't technology in the earlier days, it's just been around so long
I take it for granted. What do I know is my own childhood and what I
see around me. Anyone else have an opinion: is this young generation
a hot mess or is this a natural circular thing that every generation
of kids experience?
“It
is only when they go wrong that machines remind you how powerful they
are.”
-Clive
James
“Hardware:
the parts of a computer that can be kicked.”
-Jeff Pesis
"All
of the biggest technological inventions created by man - the
airplane, the automobile, the computer - says little about his
intelligence, but speaks volumes about his laziness.”
-Mark
Kennedy
“Programming
today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger
and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce
bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.”
-Rich
Cook
“Computers
are like bikinis. They save people a lot of guesswork.”-Sam
Ewing
Kimberly
