It is absolutely amazing what kind of things are found online.  Anything from complete books, to random facts, to jokes, to porn…Google has become a household word, instead of reaching for the dictionary or encyclopedia people fire up their computers or smart phones and go straight to the google homepage.  You can learn fascinating things from the internet, and one thing that I really appreciate about the internet is that many times you can find a simplified and quick way of gaining the knowledge you need or want at the moment.

You can also gain great trivia facts.  Like some of the following that I wanted to share here:

Futility Closet

Black Humor

It’s amazing the advances that have been made in communication in the past 100 years, and yet it seems like people are communicating less and less, which is hard to believe with emails, twitter, facebook, blackberries and everything else that people have become addicted to in the past several years.  With all of the comments and remarks that are made back and forth between people these days, I have to wonder how much actually gets said.

Some people have emotional breakdowns over what is posted on facebook, or someone’s blog, or God forbid, there is something wrong with their internet and they are cut off.    It’s funny when the power goes out and you see people look at each other in wonder, asking what are we suppose to do, as if there are not activities outside the world of technology.  It gets even funnier when someone does come up with something and they think, I’ll just message someone on the computer or email them or some other form of communication that doesn’t work, instead of simply calling them or going over to see them.

Actually going some place just to visit with people seems to have almost completely disappeared.  I have to wonder why we allow ourselves to rely on technology the way we do.  What is so important about checking our email as soon as it comes to the inbox, or feeling lost when we have no signal on our cell phone and can’t receive the text messages?

I’m not denying that communication and technology are important, I use them all of the time, in fact, I am one of those people that feels lost without access to the internet, even though I don’t use it every day, there is some type of comfort that comes with knowing that it is there if I want to be able to use it.  We expect communication to be instant these days, I can’t remember the last time I actually sat down and wrote a letter, even birthday cards are becoming fewer and fewer, when you can save the postage and simply send an ecard or message them on facebook or send a text.

So is it better to have instant communication or more heartfelt conversation?

Sometimes technology scares me…it’s getting so advanced that I have to wonder if what we’ve seen in the movies could ever happen…a robot take over.  Now, I don’t really think that will happen, at least not any time soon, but I do have to wonder if we are focusing on the wrong things and taking some things to an extreme that really isn’t necessary, and maybe not even a good idea.  Germany has created a car that can drive according to where the driver is looking…now I see some major flaws with this plan and the article I was reading noticed them too, but didn’t seem to think that it was such a big deal.  I don’t understand the practical use for many of these things…a car driven by where the driver is looking….just seems like on the street there are too many times a driver is not looking exactly where they are going, they are checking the traffic around them, checking out a pedestrian….any number of things, maybe they just want to enjoy the drive instead of speeding through staring directly at the road…and they think that this is going to be useful in every day life?  Why not create something that wont break down if you get something in your eye and need to close it for a minute?  Why not make advances in power and money saving issues?  Maybe people capable of these things really do want to make things like I Robot come true?

I think that our society is addicted to technology…when did it become socially unacceptable to not own a computer because you can’t afford it?  People seem put off if someone doesn’t have an email address or constant Internet access.  Some people even expect everyone to have instant responses to their email because they have a blackberry with Internet access, everyone must have the same technology…

Thinking back, not that many years ago, I didn’t have Internet access at all.  Now it seems like most people live on the Internet; you can take classes, you can read a lot of books, watch videos, communicate, live chat….and the list goes on and on….I think it is easy for some people to forget that not everyone is able to live in the latest technology.  Some people do not have computers, some people can’t even afford books, much less a cell phone, and yet so many people don’t ever stop to think about the fact that there are people who do not live the same life style as what they are use to seeing every day. 

I think it’s important for us to realize that although society is moving forward with technology advancements and more and more people are gaining access to all of the new technology in the world.  However, there are still many, many others who do not live in the technology obsessed world…even if they can afford a computer, they simply choose to do other things rather than sitting in front of the computer for all of their free time.  I do not believe that we are doing anything wrong by taking advantage of the technology that we have…but at what point are we so obsessed that we simply couldn’t live without it…that we would start to go through some type of withdraw if we didn’t have our computer, cell phone, or Internet?  I see so many people who seem to never take the blue tooth out of their ear, who can’t stand to turn their cell phone off, afraid that they will miss a call, text, or email. 

I think that it is important to remember that we did get along without all of this technology, not that many years ago…it is equally important for us to remember not to assume that everyone has access to the same technology as you or your friends do.