Technology or Bust

Recently, I have been lurking on FB and Craigslist, just for something to do...I have discovered a great travesty (or is it shame) that there are hundreds of thousands of people craving the attention of another person, no matter how remote.  Let that sink in for a minute...

Our greatest achievement (our, meaning the human race) is also our greatest downfall.  I was born in the late 60's.  We had 3 channels on TV, a long distance call cost a fortune, video games had not been invented yet, and the calculator was called and adding machine and was huge.  In the last 30 years, humans have created the largest, most extensive information and communication system that we could have ever dreamed of.  Television has expanded and created niche channels that number in the thousands.  Music, movies, and TV shows are now streamed to any number of devices.  Communication is virtually instantaneous.  If something tragic happens overseas, the world knows every detail of the situation within a few minutes, and the talking heads will argue about the significance of it within an hour. 

Yet, despite this massive information exchange system, there are more people than ever before suffering from depression, anxiety and isolationism.  Why is that?  My guess is that people have gotten used to the anonymity and freedom to express their innermost opinions without repercussion.  We have lost the ability to communicate on a personal level.  Many times have I wondered what would happen if all of a sudden, the web, cable systems, satellite systems, and electrical grid had a catastrophic failure.  What would it be like to the folks that have had instant information and communication all of their lives, to suddenly have nothing but the printed word, candle light, and wood fires to cook and warm with?  I believe that in placing all of our information completely on silicone chips and digital hard disks, that we might be setting ourselves up for a mighty failure.  Think of a time when you went to a grocery store.  Your order came to $10.56.  You gave the cashier $11.01 but she forgot to put in the $.01 and had absolutely no clue how much change she is supposed to give you.  In another vein, you write a page of instructions in script and hand it to your teenager expecting them to complete the tasks listed.  The teenager looks at you like you handed over a page of hieroglyphs.  As a concerned parent, you look at your kid's chat log to see what they are talking about.  All you can see is a bunch of letters assembled in such a way that you cannot understand what they are saying. 

As I write this, one might think that I am wholly against technology.  Quite the contrary actually.  I am very about technology.  I have 2 different college degrees, both firmly entrenched in technology and lack just 4 classes from a masters.  My concern is that we have let our children (grandchildren) to get lazy.  Instead of teaching them in school how to multiply, divide, add, or subtract, they teach how to use a calculator.  Gone are the days of parents quizzing kids in unexpected places--What is 9x6?  Instead we have zombies that stare at a screen, type "21st century hieroglyphs", and have these odd things hanging from their ears. 

Instead of teaching script, keyboarding is now taught.  My nephews and kids can all touchtype without looking at their hands, but they cannot read cursive nor sign their name in cursive.  I am not saying that script is absolutely necessary to human development, but it does teach our kids variation and creativity.  My cursive looks nothing like my siblings, yet we can still read it.  We learned individuality, creativity, and variational thinking at the same time we learned to write cursive.  It is a shame that art is being lost to the ages.

As parents of "21st century technogeeks", we are falling behind our kids in tech, while we retain our creative and innovative thinking.  This leads to a very large gap in understanding between generations.  It really is no wonder that kids roll their eyes when you ask a tech question or have a hard time understanding how to use that stupid phone--which incidentally is many times more powerful than the orbiter that landed on the moon. 

I guess my point is to move forward technologically, but also scream to the masses that we should not allow ourselves or our progeny to forget/never learn how to do math, read cursive, and write cursive.  The irony is that I cannot remember the last time I had to write anything longhand, but I absolutely know that I can should the need arise.  I also know, without thinking that $.45 is the change.