Get in the Green Groove

Thursday, January 24, 2008

I think our Grandparents were right

As I was driving home today after completing my errands I couldn't stop thinking about all the "things" I saw while shopping that I felt I wanted. One in particular was this Sony Reader Digital Book. I looked at that thing and thought how cool! It can hold 160 books at a time! Awesome, I would love to have that! I was also looking at all the gadgets for my ipod that I got for Christmas. You can get speakers, cases, covers, and headsets. Then on the next isle was cell phones and blackberries, portable dvd players,and mp3 players. Then I saw GPS systems, satellite radios and a new thing called a mylo (something like a PC in your pocket).

Well, after making my mental wish list of all these things, it started me thinking about my Grandparents and their thoughts on all the "new" things of their day. I remember when computers came out, boom boxes, microwaves, and cable tv. Oh, do not forget the remote control!! That was huge! No more getting up and down to change the channel. Then there was the VCR and Atari (don't forget that! Ms. Packman and Frogger) Actually, I think I got the Odyssey play system. That never did take off like Atari did. Bummer.

My Grandparents view on all this was probably the same for allot of your Grandparents as well. Who needs that? It's going to rot your brain. You need to go outside and play more. You can get cancer from that! In my day we played games, actual games, none of this computer stuff! We didn't have TV in our day we just used our imagination! The list goes on and on!!

Being young, at the time, I can remember rolling my eyes and saying yeah, yeah, whatever!! I just thought all this stuff was cool! I also remember saying. "Come on Grandma, they wouldn't make this stuff it was bad for us." Well, I'm reconsidering that statement now. Were our Grandparents right?

The things that make me think they were right are the signs of our society today. We are overweight, stressed out, impatient, sick, and depressed. We take a gazillion medications to bring us up and then more to bring us back down. Our communication is based on text messaging and email. Bringing and end to the days of the coffee clutch (woman getting together over coffee to exchange coupons,recipes, and a bit of gossip). Also, think about what we see on tv these days! We are so involved in everyone else's lives with all this reality tv, that we forget we have one too.

What about our environment? What is happening there? All this electromagnetic chaos is causing all kinds of problems!! Is the colony collapse disorder that is affecting the bees caused by this? It's a speculation. What about the migratory birds? I think we are screwing them up too. Don't even get me started about the GMO problem or the cloned animals! I just read somewhere that they are now working on a new GM carrot that will produce more calcium. Ya know, people, just stop being lazy and eat a balanced diet. We don't need to manipulate our food just because we are choosing to eat all the wrong foods! People have survived thousands of years on the crops that have been given to us! The carrot does not need perfecting. Our thoughts do.

I can't help but wonder what is all this technology accomplishing and will it ever stop? I don't think it will and I don't know how much more we our planet can take.

But, I guess what I can do is this. Keep buying books. Hold it and feel each page. Get connected again and take a look at it when I'm finished. No digital book will show the emotion; the bended corners, the coffee stains, a jotted note or two, and maybe a dried teardrop. Yes, a book! It feels much better in my hands.

"To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch... to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived This is to have succeeded!" Emerson

ps. They were right. Now I'm going to play a game with my kids. A real game, not on the computer or tv. I bet Grandma is smiling right now!

1 comment:

blubbles said...

Thanks for expressing these thoughts! In paying homage to 'modern technology',the 'old' 'civilised' human values system has obviously been sacrificed.
Perhaps it IS time to consider the 'world-wide-problem' of 'Human Society Collapse Disorder (HSCD)'??
Ben