Question: How many of you are thinking "What the hell is a rotary dial phone?".
Our ways of communication have changed dramatically through the course of history. Grunting, hand signals, hieroglyphics, Morse code, telegraph, can & string, telephone, screaming across the room... you get it... but nothing prepared this planet for the PC or the mobile phone.
In my lifetime, I grew up with one phone, dialed with a finger going 'round and 'round each number. If you were lucky you got through. If you were cheap you might hear your neighbors talking because you shared a "party line", and if you were unlucky... GASP! You got a busy signal.
Several months back my 12 year old stepson said "what's a dial tone? what's a busy signal?" The only reason they know what a rotary phone is is because I have 2 in the house as kitsch.
I get it, I'm middle aged & rapidly turning into a crusty old lady.
The good news is that I am on the cusp of being blessed by technology yet smart enough to realize that I am also being cursed by it. I got my first PC in 1995 (ish) and my first cell around the same time. Both were expensive and slow, the internet was dial-up and the mobile was pricey and had spotty coverage. You used your phone in an emergency OR to show people how cool you were (or if you were lucky... they might perceive you as rich). The fascination with the internet was chat rooms, IM'ing and the World Wide Web as presented by Netscape.
Fast forward 15+ years and we live in a completely different world. One completely connected by electronic devices. We are unable to function in our day to day living without our smartphone strapped to our side or our laptop, PC, or tablet within reach, We are a society destined for neck, shoulder, eye and back problems simply because we walk around like zombies in the "downward head" position. ...and what exactly is so important that we are spending most waking hours of our days tied to these things? My best guess #1 is social media. My 2nd guess is texting tied closely with email.
It is a worldwide addiction/epidemic and I too have become victimized by the electronic plague.
The internet is fantastic, don't get me wrong. We no longer need encyclopedias, maps, reference books, reading books, records, cassette tapes or CD's... or human contact... and THAT is the kicker.
Let's start with the tangible stuff...
There is no longer a need for music stores & that affects and saddens me the most. Regardless of the format, buying music used to be a social experience. You were forced out of the house to go on a journey. It didn't matter if you were waiting for a new release or just going "because", hanging out at the music store was something to do.
Early on you were forced to take a chance and buy an entire album. It didn't matter if 8 out of 10 songs on that album were shit, if you wanted the good songs or the popular songs, you had to buy it all. The 45 rpm single was an option but often as it was, the B-side could also tend to be crap. As times progressed you could toss on some badly worn headphones & listen to samples in-store of new releases or some awkward, undiscovered talent that was just lucky enough to have some pimply-faced record store clerk who LOVED their music so much that he/she convinced someone to make it "managers choice" that week.
The music store is where we met our friends, ran into people we knew, or just made an escape from reality. But it had a smell, a feel, and LOT'S of sounds that gave us fantastic memories.
Now we sit at our desk, in our home, in front of a screen, scrolling through MP3's... alone. We no longer have to buy the shitty music we were once forced to. Is that bad? For the artist it is a tragedy of lost revenue. For the consumer it is a mixed bag. There is no longer a discovery process. For anyone who lived through life before digital media you know all to well the familiar scene of listening to your record, cassette, or CD the first time & deciding after 4 notes that a song was crap... but then one time, just one time you accidentally let the music play through to discover.., it wasn't all that bad, and after playing it over and over and over we found ourselves reading the words in the liner notes, and singing it out loud. I love my iPod (it died a tragic death and hasn't been replaced) because I no longer need to put CD's, cassettes or 8-tracks in my car. My music is portable and the size of a fat credit card... but it comes at a price, and one that I am really sad that as a society we had to pay. I miss you Tower Records... sob sob...
Growing up there was the RIF program. Reading is Fundamental. You had to read so many books a year in school and were rewarded for reading so many over the summer. The local library was yet, another place to go, get information, be social and be seen. My dad used to take me to the library every Saturday. I picked out mountains of books, read them like a fiend, and returned them 2 weeks later. It was the 1970's. Judy Blume was to be worshiped by every pre-teen, and teenage girl (sorry, we didn't use the stupid term "tween" back then) and that was where you learned your lessons in life... "Are you there God, it's Me Margaret" was a pre-teen bible.
Once again, the library, the bookstore...an EXPERIENCE. As I got older the used bookstores became my favorite because they were another place to learn and discover and maybe run into your friends & acquaintances. Some of my favorites were in old buildings with nooks & alcoves you could sit in and get lost in. They had a dust old smell of their own. You could scour the aisles for a familiar author, or simply get sucked in by the look of the intriguing artwork on a books cover.
Now we can't be bothered with the book much less the bookstore. The Kindles, iPads, and Nooks of the world have replaced the book. Once again, a mixed bag. Less paper, I'm okay with that. Less to carry around, I'm okay with that. Another screen to look at? I'm not okay with that. I predict that the eye care industry is going to absolutely surge in the next 10 years because of our generation and beyond due to the increasing use of screen time. I've worn glasses since I was 2 and frankly if I didn't have that expense in my life I would be a happier person.
I love the feel of a book in my hand, and creating a library in my home. As someone with a design background I just don't think the same effect will be achieved with a bookshelf full of ... um... nothing?
Both industries are getting affected drastically. Music stores are dead and bookstores are dying. We have lost the art of media archaeology. To dig, is to find. To find is to learn. To learn is to grow.
Now the intangible...Friendship.
How many of your Facebook "friends" are really your friends? When you tweet something and someone you barely know or remember gives you a negative comment, how badly and emotionally are you affected by it? If you have 2000 'friends", do you really pay attention to them and do you really think at the end of the day that they actually give a shit about you? No... but those are the ones who will hide behind a keyboard and criticize you and your comments, opinions and beliefs. If you are arguing with someone who is technically a stranger, is it an argument worth having? If you "check in" every single place you go, does that make you a better person?... or really make you the mayor of Starbucks? Do I care that you "like" I Can't Believe it's not Butter or Clorox? NO!!!!
I did an experiment for my own mental health. I "turned off" as much as I could for a week to see if I would shrivel up and die. I only worked on my business Facebook and Pinterest pages (because it's my job) and did nothing on my personal pages. I didn't play Candy Crush, and I stopped checking my rotating door of email accounts every 30 seconds.
Guess what? Here I am, still alive and kicking. The biggest difference I noticed overall was that my neck stiffness backed WAY off as did the ever present knot in my right shoulder blade. So point one for physical improvement. My next observation was that no one contacted me out of grave concern of my whereabouts. Is it because they don't love me or care? No... it is because the life we lead on social media is now so insignificant and our attention spans are so short, no one really notices. My friends (the real ones) still care and love me and if they are my real friends, then we picked up the phone & talked to each other.
When I opened my Facebook page in 2007 the idea was simple; find long lost friends and reconnect. Now social media is so prevalent in our day to day lives, we can't live without it... and it has become a substitution for human contact.
The saddest part of this all is that if you currently have young children (I have 2 stepchildren 12 & 14) then they do not know a life nor will they know a life without "being connected". We don't agree with social media at their age but the live 50/50 split between 2 homes and the thought process is not the same in both homes, so all we do is monitor what we can and pray... pray a lot. Its like driving. I consider myself a good driver, it's the other guy I am worried about. Maybe that's just due to experience and taking defensive driving 6 or so times in my life. Same goes with the kids. I'm not so worried about their content, but the content & behavior of their peers. If you have a pulse then you know that school is rough and kids are shitty. Add social media and you have a disaster just waiting to happen.
Social media is causing fights, divorces, stupid Darwin like behavior, and news worthy drama. Some of the dumbest of the dumb are putting their lives out on the web. Politicians are getting caught with their pants down (literally, thank you dude named Wiener), and the famous and infamous are making complete asses of themselves.
Stop the madness. Give yourself a break. If you have an addictive personality, then you are most likely victim to issue. Having fake friends doesn't make you popular. Having the most "Pins" won't make you more creative or a better cook (although those 200 recipes you pinned look damn good!), and Tweeting constantly won't help your marriage. Get off your ass and go outside. Have your real friends over for a party. Go out to dinner or if you are going to "Pin" those 200 recipes, damn well use them.
I love the internet as much as you do. I don't want to use a phone book anymore so stop delivering them! I will continue to do research, buy things, and sell things on the web. I know that I need the internet to run efficient business. I will email my customers and friends when I need to but my constant attachment and addiction to the web is going to change starting now... please feel free to join me. Take a pledge to at least free yourself for a week or more. If your kids are attached take notice and act on it and if your kids are little, decide NOW how you will deal with it in the future.
Although I just preached about the perils of the web, I have to quote one of those awesome cards from www.someecards.com that said
"There is an amazingly beautiful world out there... that you are crushing as you walk while looking at your cell phone".
UNPLUG
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