“The production of too many useful things results in too many useless people.” -Karl Marx

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