For those who lived pre-1990 or earlier, yes those ancient times, will remember 8-track tapes, rotary telephones, tap water, front bench seats in a car. The only form of entertainment was watching TV, listening to the radio, or reading books and magazines. The younger people are saying “What the heck?”
Fast forward to the modernized world we live in today, as it’s completely reliant on digital and wireless technology.
You now can’t leave home without your smartphone and the Internet, which is now available everywhere, right at your fingertips at all times.
We now have access to lightening quick devices, with no need for dial-up modem access through a phone line.
These space age advancements even a few decades ago, would be considered science fiction grade mind-blowing technology.
This technology has completely reshaped, renovated, how we behave as a society, how we think and react.
This instant gratification generation we now enjoy, has become an integrated part of our lives.
Many can’t imagine going a day without it, wondering how the world ever existed before mobile.
To Be Disconnected
With no modern technology, what most will find themselves in is a state of complete panic, disarray, as high levels of anxiety sets in.
This occurs once the “low battery” indicator blinks on the smartphone, demonstrating how critical these devices have become.
Where would we be without the daily Twitter postings of those we don’t know, our Facebook relationships, the stalking and the creeping. How empty would our lives be.
Our Thoughts Are Now Transferred On Virtual
Every little thing we now think of, our annoying little nuances and habits, can now make instant ripples on social media and go viral, regardless of who you are.
The Internet listens and transfers every thought precisely. Facebook knows you better than you know yourself.
Once anyone feels like sharing something, anything, an idea, whether it be political, philosophical, or entertaining. The Internet and it’s wicked step child social media, is listening.
You don’t need to be famous, all you need is a cause, an opinion or complaint to become a sensation on the Internet.
You don’t need to be a politician to hide your discretion, or be a Nobel Prize writer to be read on your blog, this thanks to the World Wide Web.
You Are A Rock Star
Anyone with online access from anywhere in the world, can now command a captive audience.
If you have a cause or anything important to say, regardless if you’re a nobody who has an idea, the thoughts are transmitted.
You can disclose information, a revealing image, video, or a statement, regardless of the source.
It can catch instant virtual lightening and can go rampant overnight, through the massive power of free speech and the Internet.
Not that long ago, this would be an inconceivable idea and a space age fantasy.
Citizens like you and I, are now able to contact politicians or our favorite movie star via email or on Twitter.
We can protest while standing up for our particular beliefs through public online petitions, among any other action the Internet affords.
The Internet Is Listening With An Active Audience
The Internet isn’t just a place where people go to share their information, their ideas and ideals with one another.
The Internet is sensitive to your thoughts, the Internet is god, it knows all and hears all.
It sees and collects all your sins, your insincerity, as it’s a transparent platform where anyone can engage any idea, however whimsical it may be, and then expand on them.
For instance, take the Kickstarter platform. Kickstarter is a crowdfunding site, described as an online “pan-handling” forum.
A place where users can propose a cause, a business proposition, anything they need to raise money on, and then collect money to “kickstart” their project.
Anyone can decide to add funds by contributing money to support the project if they want, allowing the idea to develop further to maturity.
Without sites like these, most would never get the capital from complete strangers to fund them, so they can turn their ideas into reality.
The older generation are now saying, “What the heck?”
The Convenience Of The Internet
The web has brought unknowns to fame, this by posting they singing on YouTube, or filming their cat doing back flips on Facebook.
Social media has become a haven to make anyone rich and famous once it catches fire. For many, what the Internet has become is instant gratification.
Offers Instant Contact Wherever You Are
With the ease of emailing, texting, Twitter, Instagram, Skype, FaceTime, the list of instant contact availability is endless.
What the Internet now allows is immediate and instant communication with anyone around the world, usually for free.
Those who are separated by hundreds of miles or are continents apart, no longer need to rely on expensive long distance phone calls, or deliver hand written mail by ship.
Instead, anyone can communicate via video chat or send a free text right away, to reach anyone in any timezone.
What the various social media apps now allows is for anyone to share every drama of their lives with others. To complete strangers or foes, either publicly or privately.
Anything from images or video of a night out, to vacations, to relationship statuses, what we had for lunch, allowing for complete narcissistic disclosure.
Anyone Is A Fingertip Away
Keeping in touch with anyone anywhere, is now possible and no longer difficult or expensive.
This instant gratification however, will never truly replace or match the face-to-face interaction by actually meeting someone in person.
Although technology is proving to be an incredible innovation, what remains obviously more important is maintaining a healthy balance.
To remain human between the non-stop cyber world, and the real live world we live in.
Although these innovations are proving to be invaluable and important to our society, we need to be careful about connecting with the human on the other side of the Internet.
We need to be more aware of everything that’s physically surrounding us, while touching ground by relishing the physical world we live in.