The information age

The information age, that is what we live in, according to the historians anyway. Over the past few years technology has skyrocketed, there are new devices for researching the smallest particle inside and out or exploring the furthest reaches of our galaxy to the maximum. There are laboratories that research every topic we could barely think of, there are even devices that can extend the human life twenty years beyond what was thought to be our maximum life span a quarter of a century ago. But what has come with these spectacular new inventions and what has been left behind?

Everybody knows what an ipod is, it is a little box with a microchip inside capable of holding hundreds hours of music and entertainment. Who doesn’t want an ipod? Nobody. A color television; these three words seem so basic to us now compared to our super advanced computer language and flashy names for our new gadgets. But back only a quarter of a century ago color TV was just barely coming out, it was the most amazing thing in the world, to be able to see color on television! Wow! What will they think of next? How about the basic computer? It didn’t have color, or icons, or games or anything, it was a black screen with white type that could do basic computations, but it was absolutely stunning to people back then. What about Pong? Pong was the very first video game. You moved your control stick back and forth and watched a grainy white ball bounce across the screen to the other end, it was returned, and then you hit that little white, grainy ball back to the other end again. That was the game, the entire game. NOBODY would want to play that game now, with all of our new games with amazing graphics and tons of challenging levels, I know I would much rather play those that hit a grainy white ball back and forth across the screen, but back then, it was amazing! The idea that the movements of your hand on a stick could control where that ball went was totally new and wonderful! These are the good things that have come with the information age, longer lives, amazing entertainment, and much more “fulfilling” lives altogether. But every good thing has its bad things about it too.

I realize that playing Halo 2 is much more fun to play than Pong will ever be, but because Halo 2 has so many levels and is so intriguing to many people (boys) that the people who play it become so mesmerized by it that they may sit there for hours on end and do nothing besides stare at an illuminated screen shooting virtual people and running around in a virtual world. There are many reality TV shows about teenagers that captivate other people (mostly girls). This is probably the reason that we have so many overweight people in our country, without this technology, yes some of us would still sit around and do nothing, but many more of us would, say, go and do something productive! Thus the information age has its downsides.

The examples above send my message, but really what I want to say is that, though I love our new technology, as I’m sure many of us do, we have lost something through our technological breakthroughs. I watched “A Christmas Story” not to long ago, despite it not being near Christmas. It is based in the 50’s, an age without ipods, reality TV or Halo 2. Life seemed so simple back then, if you had some time on your hands you took a walk or went to the ice cream parlor. I am glad I live when I do, but some days I wish that life could be as it used to be, simple and steady.