It’s funny. We watch as iPhones and TV’s get thinner. Computers get smaller, yet storage goes up and up on them. I always think we’ve hit the wall. Nothing will get better than where we are right now. But at the same time, there’s about 1,000 innovations going to hit the market this week and prove me wrong again. I mean, at the turn of the millennium, I listened to CD’s with 100’s of songs on them (using ATRAC file storage), I played pokemon on a gameboy, and The International Space Station was under development. And at that point, I thought we were ahead of the curve. Not even close. Technology is the one thing that never ceases to amaze me.
The only problem I currently see, is that we, the Human Race, are so reliant, we will soon be bound to it. I know it’s true. The prior generations to mine, all of them, showed intellectual genius by the amount of information they could store in their brains and retrieve. My generation and those following it show intellectual worth by how quickly they can look something up. It scares the hell out of me. And don’t get me wrong. There will always be smart people out there; but as a people, I believe our collective IQ’s are dropping at a rapid rate. We are so dependent on electronic devices. We use our phones to do practically everything. We watch the most ridiculous TV shows about reality, and we take medication to help us cope with our mortgage payments. What? I think we have lost our grip with reality, especially when we compare Jersey Shore and Honey Boo Boo to our individual lives. Most of the people who do that wouldn’t want a camera crew following them around. Either because they aren’t in shape for it, or they couldn’t take the embarrassment of how daft they would come off to America.
So where do we go from here? I can’t help but think of Wall-E, the animated movie. You know, the one where we all are fat. We all ride around on chairs, drink food in the form of Icee’s and depend on robots to pick us up if our fat asses fall out of said chairs. I don’t exactly think we will get to that point. But I do think someday their will be an even greater difference in the average athlete and the average citizen. I think the food available to us is partly to blame. Designed to taste so good it is craved, but not portioned to keep the sedentary from growing at the rate of an elephant. But I think technology plays an even bigger role. What sounds more fun to the average kid? Shooting a few thousand zombies in the latest FPS title? Or running? It’s an uphill battle that quickly turns into climbing a mountain for the kid who continues to become obese. Before video game consoles, kids who became bored made their fun. A stick and a rock quickly became a backyard baseball game. Fun was engineered in the minds of young kids, not developed and sold for $60 on a Tuesday night to the masses.
Technology is tearing our generation apart. Physically, spiritually, mentally, and even as courtesy is concerned. Trashed and Scattered. It’s hard for anyone who plays games these days to get into a multiplayer lobby without hearing someone under 10 years old swearing. As funny as it comes off, I wonder how in the world his parents live with themselves when the game his grandma bought him for Christmas teaches him new words to use in public when he doesn’t get his way. Disturbing, and sad, but true. It’s no wonder our brain cells have more and more vacancy signs nowadays. Kids can remember even single step to beating a 20 hour video game, but lack the skills to correctly write in the English Language and explain how to do it. We are all followers; no cognitive leaders to be found.
Generation Sheep, it should be called.
So what can we do to curb this? There aren’t many options. Most gamers laugh at the plausibility of Wii Fit or Connect games that cause us to flop around or swing a remote wildly in our living rooms. And there isn’t any initiative to be smarter than the internet if you can just “Google it”. So what can we, as a society, do to right this very stupid, very fat ship before it has the IQ of a cinder block and the weight of a whale? We need to step back into an authoritive role; take charge. Forget this whole no spanking crap. That was the entire reason I feared and respected my parents up until I was too old to be spanked. Punish your children when they don’t listen. Tell them to read a book instead of play video games. Turn their phone off until they go play football for an hour. Today’s society is so F’ed in the head with this political correctness bullshit. “We can’t force our children to do anything; after all, they are people too.” Do they work? Pay taxes? Vote? Lead lives without parents who provide for them? No, they don’t. Therefore, they do what their parents tell them to.
We need to find ways to abandon technology during our school and home lives so that if there ever comes a time where we lose technology, we don’t revert to swinging clubs and making monkey noises to communicate. We also shouldn’t be so fat that we can’t hunt. Trust me, fatty. It doesn’t matter if you had Ninja on Call of Duty as a perk, your “husky” ass isn’t sneaking up on a deer. No way. No how.
I guess to end this, I would just say to challenge each other, friends and family, parents and children, to get out and enjoy the world without technology at least an hour a day, for 60 minutes, turn off the TV, put your phones down, and engage those nearest you with logical conversation. Play a trivia game. Go for a walk together. Read a book together, do something, anything, that doesn’t require electricity for anything more than lighting. Make yourself and those you care about better.
Everyday thoughts and observations from my life. 