In today’s society it is very easy to become disillusioned with your job, college work, or friendships. More and more frequently these things are being fast tracked, modernised, or simply lost and ignored. The question of blame lies with many mistresses; it is our short attention span or lack of focused information? Have we as a society become so bombarded by media footage and stories that we cannot see a problem right in front of us until it is too late? Who among us still turns off their mobile when, silent is as good as. Has socialising been minimalized into simply turning on every digital appliance we own? I-pads, I-pods, I-phones, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and even blogging are just a few of the far too many to mention inventions out there that keep us ‘tuned in’. The question that remains in the wake of this innovative technology is: when do we have time for us?
As I do with most of the topics I blog about, before beginning to type, I go in search of images I can use and this week I came across this photo:
Needless to say, I am obsessed with Zombies so, obviously when I come across a picture like this I have to include in my post. However, this picture makes a valid point; Most of my peers, including myself, fit into the zombie category on the right, constantly tuned in and paying very little attention to our surroundings. I find it more difficult of late to focus on just one simple task and I constantly find myself jumping back and forth from one assignment or duty to another. Short attention span/ lack of focus/ whatever way you want to describe it, most of my generation have got it!
Just as George A. Romero’s 1978 zombie film: Dawn of the Dead focuses on consumerism, the above photo delves into the impact of modern technology on today’s society. Now, there are most definitely people out there who will think that I am over-reacting and that if I am so worried by this then why don’t I simply just turn off my phone and shut down my laptop, it is all that simple after all. But all the while, I have my mobile turned off I have that niggling feeling, similar when I have an assignment due for college and I keep putting it off, it is a feeling of discomfort and slight anxiety that begins as a whisper: ‘what if someone is trying to contact you?’ and sure enough if I ignore that whisper for as long as possible, it will turn into a full blown siren screeching at me to ‘ get out of the metaphorical way of technological progress’ and perhaps to ‘stop being an old fart’.
I’d like to give a recent example: I was out to lunch with my cousin recently catching up during which, I stopped mid-conversation to send several text messages, whilst doing so I did think to myself that ‘this is rude’ but, I did not discontinue what I was doing. My cousin was not fazed in the slightest by my sudden intermission in the conversation; she waited patiently for me to continue just as I did for her later on. What I want to illustrate with the above example is that it is rude to use your phone during a face to face conversation with another person, but when did it become acceptable to do so? What is this innate need for the younger generations, and include my own generation in that category, to be constantly tuned it? Is it really that horrendous a crime to miss out on something, to be unaware of an occurrence until the next day? Does modernising technology that benefits us all really have to come alongside a hazardous impact on our own physical social interactive skills? Is losing our manners an adequate price to pay for stepping forward into the future? We see on television of late, numerous advertising which discourages the use of mobiles while crossing the road. Even stronger is the media discourse in diminishing the use of said phones in the car. Is the next step one towards re-teaching the youth of today basic manners? And, who really cares anyway? In a couple of years or so we’ll be communicating through glass windows anyway…..
Americanization 