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« on: February 25, 2015, 06:44:03 PM »
Do you ever wake up in the morning, and wonder what the hell happened in the past 20 years? As a world, we've made incredible technological advancements, that have completely changed the way we lives our lives an interact. I just wonder, from a societal standpoint, if we are ready for such drastic changes in human civilization. Cell phones, the internet, GPS all have influenced the past 20ish years.
I wonder how people 30 or 40 years ago used to communicate, without cell phones, when things were slower. When you could get ahold of someone at work, or at home, but nowhere else (except for pay phones). In the 21st century, in America at least, everyone is basically expected to have a cell phone, to be available at any time, even children. 15 years ago, a parent of a preteen might've said "But not everyone else in your class has one, i'm not buying you one.", but they wouldn't say that now because chances are (almost) everyone else does. Beyond just a social status, a cell phone is now a social requirement. Okay, we're not quite there yet, but its only a matter of time.
With the "social requirements" we as a people burden ourselves with the cost. Technology isn't free, and so I think these are costs previous generations didn't have (though maybe they had their own "costs"). This, I believe is a large part of the generation gap; The younger generation is amassed with more costs due to social requirement, along with unskilled jobs that nickel and dime us to death. By the time cell phones and internet came about, boomers had settled into their careers for the most part, so for them this was just another living expense, but for the younger generation this is an expensive social requirement.
I don't want this to be about the "evil no good" boomer generation, who clung onto many of the good jobs after the 2007 recession, because I don't feel that way, but sometimes it really seems like we're getting fucked. An insurmountable and unpayable government debt, minimum wages that are too low and jobs where full time is 32 hours a week, barely enough to pay my car insurance and phone bills, much less to actually live off. They certainly are unskilled jobs that offer more hours and slightly higher wages, but almost all of them expect you to work to hard for too little. I'm not against working hard, but i'm not putting my body at risk for a wage that isn't worth it. In this sense, I think we have been taking steps backwards.
I guess I just wonder if people 50 years ago had the same money problems that we do now, if technology is really worth the cost, and how people might change in the next 50 years. As I've stated before, both my parents are making less than they were 20 years ago (probably about 60% of what they were, my dad used to have a comfortable job working for a large insurance company, but he got fired for, and I'm quoting this from the official court documentation "selling insurance to too many black people", but thats a story for another time), and I spend a lot of time trying to comprehend why, and obviously not make the same decisions. In about a decade, they're going to stop working, and worrying if they will have saved enough by then really burdens me. Some days I want to abandon them, and let them fend for themselves, but I know it would make me a monster. The worlds knowledge at my fingertips, ability to communicate with anyone instantaneously, yet we still let paper promises control our thoughts and worries. What has technology really achieved?
Some days I just want to move to a rural place to get away from it all. Everything moves so fast now, that i'm not sure we're ready for it. The world as one makes everyone the same. One day, probably within our life times, human consciousness will be able to survive on a microchip in the digital realm, and that will be a sad day.
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