The Other Corener
Much has been made of the upcoming generation's flaws. We can't talk to each other anymore without whipping out our phones to shoot off a text. We have to change songs halfway through because we thought of another one we wanted to listen too. Every 15 minutes of productivity must be accompanied by 15 minutes on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Buzzfeed, or some other chasm of the internet. I'll admit, these things aren't always great, especially in large doses. But in the words of Woody Harrelson's immortal True Detective character Marty Hart:
"You know, throughout history, I bet every old man probably said the same thing. And old men die, and the world keeps spinnin'." Let's focus on the drastic, and potentially positive, things the first generation to grow up with technology is bringing with it into the world. Internet based companies such as AirBnB and Uber challenge the authority of Hotel Chains and Taxi services respectively--offering a higher quality of service and more of a personal connection. Tinder gives horny twenty somethings a venue to browse potential hookups at lightning speed, and opens up a chat between mutually interested users. There are thousands of legal and technically illegal ways to get any movie, TV show, or song on any device we want. Now, I'm not arguing for a complete overhaul of society here. I personally love leaving my phone off for days at a time, enjoy long term relationships with the right person, and would totally go to a store to browse CD's if a friend of mine happened to be in a hipster phase. But, since when does a little competition hurt? AirBnB and Uber will probably result in a huge change in either the price or quality of hotels and taxi services in the consumer's favor. People never listened to more music than they do right now (if you count dubstep as music). Old people will yell at you until they are blue in the face about how the hookup culture is destroying America, but couldn't you argue the same about societal pressure toward the institution of marriage? And if someone could just seek out sex with a partner instead of a relationship, wouldn't it mean so much more to the relationship if he/she chose the restriction? I want to see us push technology to work for us, because that will challenge the status quo to improve itself or cede to a better way. And it's not just improving the lives of the fortunate--though that has been the primary function of technology thus far in my opinion. What if we used phones to allocate food or water supply? What if we could stream lessons in a trade craft to millions of eyes? Having immense computing power at our disposal is a tremendous advantage to everyone--an advantage that is unparalleled in history and completely uncharted territory for the world at large. Right now we can send a text to anyone almost anywhere in the world and get a response. Imagine if we could talk to them like they were right next to us. -ZY
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