Every other Facebook status this last week has involved a shout out of thankfulness and love for the life of someone that most of us have never met but has impacted almost everyone in one way or another.
I really honestly only know the name Steve Jobs because we learned about him in our computer classes in high school. Now, this may not be the best time to confess that I have never been the biggest financial supporter of Apple products (mainly because you have to be financially stable to do so), but I have a healthy respect for the company and what they have done. They have pioneered technology as we know it....and Steve Jobs apparently was right at the center of those innovations. Our world is decidedly changed because he lived.
Something that has gotten me thinking though is what the legacy is that Steve Jobs is going to leave behind. I think that his life resume would prove that he was an accomplished man, but I also wonder where his accomplishments have left us. More connected? More informed? Cooler? I would agree with all of those. Nobody loves having information and communication right at their fingertips at all times more than I do. No one can refute that you don't look pretty rad carrying your tiny computer around in your pocket. I have to admit I have spent hours playing on my parent's Ipads....even though I swore up and down about how much of a waste of money they were when they bought them.
But push all those positives aside and let's take a solid look at where else this puts us? Take each of those things....
1) More connected....
People are certainly more connected through constant texting and constant Facebooking, but what about connecting in person. When is the last time that you committed to call someone instead of taking the easy road and sending them a Facebook comment or message? I will just use myself on this one...and I don't even own an IPhone or anything with "I" in front of it...but still, I only have one friend that I call on a regular basis...and let's be honest...she usually calls me. I haven't talked to my sister on the phone since she visited in July. That is pretty disgusting when you think about it. Sure I Facebook with these people....but I can't commit to talking on the phone for 10 minutes...even just to say hi? You know why? Because technology has pretty much depleted all abilities that we used to have in old fashioned forms of communication. I am the worst phone talker in the world. I'm awkward. I can't stand silences so I run my mouth just to hear myself talk. I don't ask good questions. I don't have enough topics of conversation in my head to make things work. But I'm a great Facebooker. How impersonal. How terrible that my best friends in the world and my family who I adore never hear from me because I'm too scared to pick up a phone. When I do pick up a phone....I dread it. You could blame social anxiety (which I don't have) or blame my own stubbornness. But to some extent I blame technology...and I think it's valid.
2) More informed...
Here's what I have to say about this. I wish I were less informed sometimes. Because it's never about things that are worth being informed about. Apparently Kim Kardashian got married recently....and I sure have heard a lot about that from my friends who are uber connected to their computers and from trashy TV shows. But did you know that there were more suicides in the military this year than there were actual wartime deaths? Why do we not hear about these things? Because no one is checking out CNN.com when they grab their phones and scan the sites. And I'm to blame for this just as much as anyone else. I remember growing up and watching the news every single day. Not saying that the news media doesn't have its issues, because they certainly do. But I don't read newspapers, I rarely see the news. I don't give myself an opportunity to hear even the most important of stories.
Oh, I also know what "so and so" ate for breakfast this morning. I know what that guy that I just met likes to do in his free time and how many friends he has from college. I know that one of my friends got a new girlfriend last week I know that 10 of my friends like that he got a new girlfriend. And to not be hypocritical, my friends know what I did today, yesterday, and the day before that. We are informed....but not because we are asking questions or even interacting, but simply because the information is there. There is no mystery, and to some extent there is a decreased practical need for real relationships. Let's say I get together with a friend that I had from college and haven't seen in a few months. Chances are good that we will only need to talk for about 5 minutes to hear the things that we don't already know from Facebook, or to confirm the things we've heard on Facebook. And then from that point on....what do you talk about? If it isn't important enough for Facebook, then who cares? Right? That is the mentality.
3) Cooler....
Not being in my school years in this day and age is a total blessing for me. I'm so thankful I hit that age when I did, because being as poor as my family was during a time like this would be so depressing. Coolness in this technology age is all about what you have....what toys you can show off. It was like that to some extent when I was little, but it was more about whether you had a Tamigotchi or a Furby. Now it is about what Iphone you have and how loaded your Ipod is.
We take value away from people and put value on objects. Objects help make the people. I actually have people in my life that I associate with the things that they have. And I love them dearly...but those things mean more to them than anything else in the world. It is their comfort blanket, and in turn its become their calling card.
I just think this whole thing is so interesting. A man who pioneered the world with his visions is gone and now as we stand in this spot looking back and starting to look forward...I can't envision where it goes from here. The truth of the matter is that there is no looking back. We aren't ever going to decrease in technology levels....it is only going to get more impersonal from here. It makes me stop and think about what it is that I feel compelled to do about it personally. Do I make an extra effort to use Facebook less...to share less about myself there and to save that for real interactions? Do I commit to not getting that Iphone or any smart phone because I don't need to be that connected ALL the time. I think everyone, at some point, should take an inventory of what this all means and where you go from here. Because for all the steps forward...we are actually taking some pretty giant leaps back too.
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