Our parents never had such means of information and communication. Their telephones made sparks, research assignments were done in texts (Books!), math calculations with a slide rule and automobiles were built by people. Things were what they were, and those who weren't happy did not posses "status update" capabilities to inform the world of their displeasure. They couldn't blog it away, or tweet it about to all of their "followers". Those poor poor fools. Consequently, with every breakthrough innovation such as cell phones, the Internet, the laptop, hybrid cars, this theoretically prehistoric generation is absolutely blown away with every consecutive modern marvel. It must be like those elementary Christmas mornings we all have stashed in our memories.
As a twenty six year old male, the shock and awe of things really fails to register. Spoiled? Entitled? I don't quite know how to classify it. The simple fact is that I view technological innovation as almost 'expected'. I feel confident in my assumption that nearly every other member of my generation shares similar acts of acceptance and presumption. From a child, to adolescent, to teen, to academic, to bachelor I have been witness to countless miracles of invention and in looking back, admit to hardly blinking with each products arrival. It is the evolution of the technological realm. Perhaps that's what makes evolution such a hot topic, it's so subtle and camouflaged that few who are in the thick of it truly can identify its happenings, until hindsight, which is 20/20 of course. Or until the things you never acknowledge, suddenly fall away and disappear. Cue the cliche "You don't know what you got til it's gone."
Australia is not a third world country. In fact, in terms of technological access and capability I would estimate it at being at a USA 2004-2006 level. It's clean, modern, much less crowded and has every imaginable modern amenity that we enjoy in the United States and in other fortunate countries that lay on the cutting edge. The lack in luxury I experienced in this instance is more attributed to the fact that I am a foreign traveler in a unfamiliar land, outside my comfort zone, ergo my discomfort. But for three days void of Internet capability, grounded from cell phone use, restricted from queuing up desired programming, I felt pathetically deprived and increasingly flustered.
Thankfully in under a week I have for the most part sought out and obtained all of the modern luxuries I 'need' to exist, as sad as that sounds. It's life for me, and although it shouldn't be in the grand scheme of things, it's life for nearly all of us who had the privilege, or curse, depending on your outlook, to have such technological access in our upbringings and existence. Now, from frustration has come revelation. In a way I feel like my parents, and their generation. Losing these axles of existence have granted me the ability to skew my outlook so that I may see and appreciate the tools and capabilities for what they are again. Rather than rank and file as "Expected" and "Routine", I hope that I may be more like myself on those early Christmas mornings, amazed and surprised and excited to embrace and utilize. So as the Internet, the digital television, the personal computer, automobile, aircraft and on and on evolve, as our cultures & communities absorb and embed their capabilities in our way of effective living, that perhaps we as a whole may take more notice. I believe the potential in this revamped and appreciative outlook is unbridled and it's potential infinite. For I dare you to test this philosophy yourself, banish yourself from these modern 'perks', if only for a day or two, and see how you must adapt your way of living, the results might surprise you, or make you feel pathetically chained to technology. The line we walk between the two is forever thinning.
I leave you with a short clip from comedian Louis CK from an interview he did on Conan O'Brien. It's titled "Everything is amazing and nobody is happy." Enjoy, and maybe give it a thought?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r1CZTLk-Gk
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