I am a child of the 1980's. I am one of those somewhere in between generation x and generation y. I think they call us the MTV generation, as degrading as that is. We X.5ers have found ourselves in a fun conundrum. We are old enough to remember what it was like before the personal computer ran our lives, but not old enough to be nostalgic about it. Instead we had Kevin Arnold and The Wonder Years to be nostalgic for us. Despite the fact that I have been around for a great deal of it's development, electronic technology has always eluded me. In the 80's, I was busy playing with Legos when I should have been trying to convince my parents to invest in Microsoft. The long term effect is that I am currently by no means up to date on the latest technology which, in turn, means I continue to be fascinated by technology that is either out of date or obsolete. But there is one thing I have lived through and recognized the full arc of while still finding it absolutely incredible: the cellular phone.I am currently writing this blog by using a cellular phone*. Think about that for a second. I am using a telephone to access the Internet (spellcheck tells me Internet is spelled with a capital "I," not unlike proper names. Take that to the bank) and am using the keypad to type my ramblings onto a website. Take that Alexander Graham Bell. You might have invented the phone, but can yours show you the score of the Cubs' game? I think not. One wonders if Bell had any idea that the phone would impact mankind the way that it has.
Ten years ago I, along with many other people, did not own a cell phone. 15 years ago The Internet was a novelty who's potential was still untapped, and 20 years ago having a personal computer was unheard of. And now look at us. We currently live in a time where the most desired item in the nation is fundamentally a telephone. A super-telephone that holds as many contacts as most people could ever need, stores calendars and schedules, accesses the Internet at break-neck speeds, sends and receives e-mails, text messages, pictures, voice recording, has a digital camera and a global positioning system. Oh the places technological advances will go. I am currently sitting in a theatre next to a highly sophisticated lighting console with at least 3 laptops within arm's reach and surrounded by 60 kids between the ages of 6 and 26 all of whom have cell phones, and most of whom have ipods on their person. Not to sound old, but none of these younger kids are ever going to know what it is like to be unreachable to the outside world when they leave their homes. Big brother will always be able to get it touch with them, or at least leave a message, or send a text, or an IM.
I vividly recall when my father installed his first car phone in our old Saab 900S, briefcase sized computer pack and all. I remember my families first computer and the first time I accessed the Internet via AOL. I remember when public schools banned beepers because they were thought to indicate drug dealing. I remember when the first of my friends got a cell phone and we all thought it was merely an elitist device used to call one's parents at work when it was time to be picked up from school. I remember my first cell phone; the same Nokia phone that everyone else had. Luckily you could customize yours with plastic face plates for $40 a pop.
Cell phones are a spectacular innovation. No one needs to be told how much they have changed the lives of everyone who owns one. They allow the ability for 24 hour communication no matter where you are in the world. They allow people to conduct more business in more places at more hours of the day than conventional phones, and they make the necessity of remembering phone numbers obsolete. But there is a downside: they allow the ability for 24 hour communication no matter where you are in the world. They allow people to conduct more business in more places at more hours of the day than conventional phones, and they make the necessity of remembering phone numbers obsolete. There are many more amazing innovations that are also disadvantages when it comes to phones. Cell phones are great, they really are, but people need a break sometimes. I am included in this. As I previously stated, I have never been fully up to date on technology, and for a quarter century I have never felt the need to be dialed in, but since getting a Blackberry Curve something has changed, and I keep finding myself looking for news on the release date and features on the forthcoming Blackberry Bold. This has never been a part of who I am, and as much as I like being informed, I don't like that I have come to enjoy getting informed on something that will become obsolete in a matter of months or worse, weeks or even days. I especially don't like that I have become worried that I am out of touch with the world if I don't have a phone with me. I don't like that there are three different ways to get a hold of me that all come directly to my phone, and I really don't like adding another bill to my repertoire every month. Yet at the same time, I love all those things. Well I could do without the money thing. I guess that is what they call a double-edged sword, and that is what virtually all technology is. None of it is universally good and none of it is universally evil. Instead it all has an upside with an equally prominent downside. Where we gain one level of convenience and leisure, we lose in other areas of life. Again, that is not altogether a bad thing, but sometimes it is. The only thing universally great about cell phones is that we are all learning how to touch-type really well with our thumbs... As long as we can keep them from hurting.
It seems the Fairmount Hotel and Resort backs me up.
*In the interest of full disclosure: the first draft of this blog was indeed written on a Blackberry Curve 8310, but all revisions and media attachements were made on a latop. There is no sin of ommision here.
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