Daily Mood Quote
Day 140 – September 20, 2011
People live longer today than they ever have. They live happier lives, have more knowledge, more information. All this is the result of communications technology. How is any of that bad?
~Tom Clancy
On the surface I can agree with Tom Clancy, there is a great benefit to better communications and more widely available information. The caveat is that the information most people pay attention to is only the surface information and they draw conclusions based on very little and often very sketchy information. One lesson, I have worked very hard to teach my children is; before you accept something as gospel (the truth, or fact based) do your research, find out what kind of information is out there, and what is being said or claimed, as being the “be all and end all” of information. Some of my children have learned this lesson; others, well let's leave that for another blog. Who knows maybe it will be “The funny side of parenting: the reasons we have grey hair.”
Anyway back to communications; with the advancement of technology going nearly as fast as the speed of light, it is very hard to keep up with all the information. Trust me as you age, it is harder to care about how fast technology is going, because it is becoming impossible to keep up with it. You buy a cell phone and by the time you finish reading the manual to use all the bells and whistles it offers, someone has begun a campaign for the next, latest, greatest and newest cell phone. More bells and whistles and a bigger operations manual to read. We need to live longer just to be able to process all the new information that's being thrown at us.
Seriously, being able to share important information has never been easier and global conversations are happening every day, that helps us move forward as a world community. That is good. Unfortunately with the good comes a host of... well not so good. The Internet is now full of scams, identity thefts, electronic espionage of counties and organizations. It's just sad; seems like it's human nature to take a good thing and screw it up. History is full of good discoveries and innovations that have been turned to “the dark side” (Thanks George Lucas, but FYI my husband coined that term way back in the early 60's, long before Star Wars and Chewbacca was even a fuzzy idea).
The point is everything that is new and good, comes with baggage. Lao Tzu noted this 2500 years ago and we haven't really changed a bit. He said, “Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill, keep sharpening a knife and it will blunt.” So too with advanced communications; sometimes its too much and you hit a saturation point, then errors start to happen. Information overload spills into lives and suddenly people are hooked, to their cell phones (aka: digital leash), an internet connection, TV 24/7 news feed, plus other things too unsavory to mention and the important things in life begin to slip. Subtly at first, but that's how the “dark side” works. But, then it's sooooo hard to walk away, for even a little time. “Just turn it off” becomes a terrifying concept. I have recently read that in offices around the nation, up to 30% of an office worker's day is wasted on personal internet use and email. If that's you, please go back to work: I'll wait for you to read this when you have some free time. I love that you read this blog and our reader numbers are growing, but please do so responsibly. I want you to keep your job. Goodness knows they're hard to find these days.
In the movie The Matrix, with Keanu Reeves (Neo), Morpheus (Lawrence Fishburne) said, “Throughout human history, we have been dependent on machines to survive. Fate it seems, is not without it's sense of irony.” Good things usually came with unintended consequences. That's just how it is. Do yourself a favor take a walk _open mined and unplugged, enjoy the scenery and experience for just a few moments life outside the techno-bubble. I like what Gordon Brown said, “Take, therefore, what modern technology is capable of: the power of our moral sense allied to the power of communications and our ability to organize internationally. That, in my view, gives us the first opportunity as a community to fundamentally change the world.” As long as we are changing it for the better. That's all I've got to say 'bout that (Thanks Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump).
How will you responsibly communicate today?
Tune in tomorrow to read the daily mood quote
Thank you for reading
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