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Evolving, Connecting and Confounding
Janet Kuypers
started 12/28/16, finished 1/2/17
It concerns me when I see toddlers vying for their mommy’s attention, yelling, to get their mom to look up from their smart phone.
It confuses me when I hear that IBM corp., the company that invented the P.C., has decided that all their employees should use Macintosh computers. Riddle me this, Batman, explain to me why the new decree is that all IBM employees should use Macs.
It condemns us all when I see an ad on TV of a hero fighting enemies, killing people, escaping certain doom before saving humanity — until the PlayStation logo appears, followed by the words “Greatness Awaits.”
How confounding. Because greatness awaits for those who didn’t sit on those comfy cushions and play video games. Heroes act, they don’t sit back and escape their reality by playing games of an alternate reality — they make their lives great. So, yes, for all you console junkies, greatness still awaits.
It consumes me when the town I am from, the city I love, the one with the best architecture, the best skyline from the water, and wait a minute, the best tasting tap water too, the best blues music, the best cultural mix, it consumes my soul when the mayor calls Chicago a sanctuary city and further restricts gun rights of those who would legally buy guns. Unlike the gangs, who, in Chicago over Christmas weekend, shot over 60 people.
Of course there were innocent bystanders.
It concerns me. It confuses me. It confounds me. It consumes me.
This is commonplace. This is a part of what they call evolution. Or maybe it’s how the culture evolves, by staring at screens with all the surface information they could ever want at their fingertips. Or maybe it’s how the culture devolves, by not having to remember a thing (because you always have Google on that phone of yours that’s smarter than you), so you can just stare at a screen instead of interacting with people.
Because why would you want to interact with people when you can look at a 4 inch square screen instead.
Went to a bar and saw two men together at a table, both using their smart phones instead of interacting with each other. (But wait a minute, isn’t the point of going out in public to meet someone in the first place, isn’t the point to actually interact with them?)
Because the bar, the pub, the publican, was a place where people went to meet up with each other to interact. But this past New Year’s Eve, at a bar on Rainey street, a group of people went into a bar to ask if they had TVs, so they could watch a sports game. You see, now this publican is becoming a place where people can all go to pay attention to anything other than the people they came with — or anyone else, for that matter. This is your new future.
‘Cuz I remember back in the day when me and my friend Jason had our laptops at a bar with a bunch of friends, and we could transfer files to each other by putting our laptop sensors in front of each other. So yeah, I was still doing computer geek stuff, but at least I was in public, interacting with actual people, while I did it. This is how we were cutting edge, and this is how we were rebellious. All without losing our connection to people.
We look for a happy medium. I am the woman who uses audio and video sampling in my performances, the woman with her own name name as a domain name, tons of CDs on iTunes, who runs a expansive online and print publishing organization incorporating YouTube and Vine videos, facebook, twitter, instagram, even Pintrest, Tumblr and Google+. But I don’t know how many times I’ve been called a luddite because I only recently got a smart phone, and you know, no one ever calls me, so really, what am I missing out on.
Because maybe the problem is trying to come up with that balance. With the ever-expanding technology crammed down our throats that we’re forced to feel that we need, sure, we can always want the latest and the newest, we can forget that our phone used to cost less that $20 per household per month, because we always have to give up something to get something more.
We think we can have it both ways as we welcome the new millennium, but maybe the real key to it all is remembering to strike that balance, so we don’t lose what we loved about the past, while embracing and throwing our arms around the future.
The future is ours. Just look before you leap, so you know that you’ll land on your own two feet — and still land on top.
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