The Subjective Lightness Of Being: iPhone, uText, weDumb, theyWin

Monday, July 07, 2008

iPhone, uText, weDumb, theyWin

I've been slacking off on this blog here, haven't I? A whole week and nothing new. Bad me! Bad!

There's been one central issue that has been floating around in my head for a couple of weeks now. Maybe not really "central" but it definitely does keep popping up. It pops up when I'm at work, when I am holding conversations through email, through instant messenger, and then it popped back up in my head when I saw George Carlin's last interview on Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

Most recently, the concept popped back up when I was watching Californication last night.

Our society is progressively getting dumber. I've been seeing it everywhere. George Carlin stated it's the gadgets. The new technology. The vastly growing internet and our obsession with the latest new cell phone/sidekick/video game playing/ipod etc etc. I'd have to agree.

Driving home the other day, I was watching this girl in the car next to me not once take her eyes off of her sidekick which she was texting on. The majority of people I see are texting, listening to their ipod, talking on the phone more often then not.

This brought me to wondering what my life in high school would have been like if MySpace was around. Better yet, if the internet was accessible then as it is now. I remembered, for entertainment back then, I'd have to leave the house. Go outside and play. Read a book. Write a story. Something creative.

Now we're fat. We're dumb. We're lacking a certain sense of truly caring and a drive to learn. I'm using the royal we here. I'm referring to what I see around me, to the younger generation. I used to work at MySpace and couldn't ever get past how much kids are desensitized now to visuals, language, and concepts that when I was a child were off limits to teenagers. This desensitized nature spills over in their lack of interest in school, their poor communication skills, and in turn writing essays for English class that more-so resemble a shorthand cyberspeak instant messenger conversation.

I don't see it getting any better. We need some sort of hunger and discipline for knowledge in this country and I don't believe we have it. It all starts with the educational system. Actually, it starts with the parents. Doesn't it always start with the parents? Don't they always say that. I guess it's true.

I hate the term LOL. I never use it. I don't like texting in shorthand. It makes me feel like I am undercutting the initial purpose for language meaning and useage. That being said, I don't believe this problem will go away. All this fuss over the new Apple this or new Microsoft that, the new cutting edge video game system, etc leads me to believe that we definitely will get to a point where computers and gadgets will take over. We will get so frickin' lazy that a Skynet situation much like that in the Terminator movies actually, for some outlandish reason, seems kind of possible.

I wish people would pick up more books, put down their handheld devices, get off the computers, and go outside and become more aware of the happenings in this world and their environment. Who knows, maybe that would make somewhat of a difference?

Then again, there's always a possible future where technology and robots take over.