COM 565 Blog

I wanted to post this speech from Bob Moorhead. From time to time I reflect on what the words are really trying to say. I feel this speech is telling a compelling story of the struggle we all face as our technology evolves. As I read this speech I find it helps put life back into prospective for me, I hope it does the same for you. 

                                                                                                                                     >>Darryl

       

THE PARADOX OF OUR TIMES

Is that we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers

Wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints

We spend more, but we have less.

 
We have bigger houses, but smaller families

More conveniences, but less time.

We have more degrees, but less sense

More knowledge, but less judgement

More experts, but more problems

More medicines, but less wellness.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.

We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often

We have learnt how to make a living, but not a life.

We have added years to life, but not life to years.

We've been all the way to the moon and back

But have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor.

We have conquered outer space, but not inner space.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted our soul.

We've split the atom, but not our prejudice.

We've higher incomes, but lower morals.

We've become long on quantity but short on quality.

These are the times of tall men, and short character;

Steep profits, and shallow relationships.

These are the times of world peace, but domestic warfare,

More leisure, but less fun; more kinds of food, but less nutrition.

These are the days of two incomes, but more divorces;

Of fancier houses, but broken homes.

It is a time when there is much in the show window, and nothing in the stockroom.

A time when technology can bring this letter to you,

And a time when you can choose,

Either to make a difference .... or just hit, delete.

IIn 1945, the American inventor Vannevar Bush. Published an article called “As We May Think”. It outlined a concept (considered revolutionary at that time) for a futuristic networked machine similar to today’s Internet.  Part of that vision was a small concept that has the power to revolutionize the way we communicate forever.

With the introduction of iTunes music has never been the same. The music world completely changed over night. Apple turned the music world on its ear and left it with three major problems. First iTunes opened up a new way to buy music. Before iTunes music was bought in music stores or through a few mail order music houses. You would go to music stores and sift through music bins with headlines and dig through the not so popular music titles, music store clerks usually would come in two flavors, those who didn't know music and those that where audio files.

Music stores where cool in the day, but somewhat limiting which brings me to the second reason iTunes took the music industry by storm. Finding music was somewhat of a hunt, you could talk with friends or listen to the radio and sample a new song of a bands album, but the radio stations played only the hit songs recommended by the music industry. Sure there were alternative stations playing the underground stuff but it wasn’t the norm. iTunes made it possible to buy music based on preference and recommendations. This was allowed users to make playlists of music that was a person as the music they were listening to and share with friends.

The third change iTunes delivered to the music world was purchase only the song you want for 99 cents. This was different than anything the music world has ever seen. The music world had 45 albums with one or two songs, but iTunes developed the concept of digital content in a music form. Apple really delivered a double blow when they introduced the iPod. What Apple really did was introduce a complete digital ecosystem. iTunes stored MP3 and iPods made MP3 portable and cool.

The music industry took massive losses as music listeners began converting music collections to mp3 and building and sharing playlist. After a time the music industry soon started to intact laws to constrict the control iTunes gave the world.

I don't know who actually said this quote? Some sources say it was the most influential physicist of the 20th century, Albert Einstein who pushed the limits of the human mind, while others say it was from the film Powder (1995) directed by Victor Salva, a film that questions the limits of the human mind and raises hope that humanity will advance to a higher state of understanding because its fundament to life. Who ever said it really made me stop to think about this statement and applied it to today's fast paced world we live in.

I do find our technology might be making us less human or at least evolving as a society in some very strange ways. As a society we are so eager to have technology's help in every aspect of our lives, but we really haven’t stopped to ask the questions of how much is too much, and how is technology's effects playing with our humanity. With all of our modern advancements we have become a culture of more, faster, better, and on demand.

We are creating a culture of distraction where we are increasingly disconnected from the people and events around us and increasingly unable to engage in long-form thinking. People now feel anxiety when they are without their phones and unable to check emails, this really inhibits us from a real human connection when we need our phones over the people right in front of us. We are losing some of the very important things that make us human. We threaten creativity, imagination, and insight by filling up all our “free” time with stimulation.

Today’s technology has given us the ability to produce large amounts of cheaper foods, but the flip side of it is that childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years.

Most Social Scientist and Technologists are not saying the future is in a mass parallel, but they are worried about our digital transformation. The paradox of our digital humanity isn’t with our wearable technology’s and our new forms of content that are helping us to connect but in our ability to stay connected to the things that make us human and happy.

(2014, December 11). Retrieved March 29, 2015, from http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/obesity/facts.htm

Is technology making us less human? (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2015, from http://www.techradar.com/us/news/world-of-tech/future-tech/is-technology-making-us-less-human--1171002

Mass communication Changes in the Social and Economic Scenario. (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2015, from http://www.peoi.org/Courses/Coursesen/mass/fram6.html

SCHOOL: Mass Media and its Influence on American Culture. (2013, May 20). Retrieved March 29, 2015, from https://makaylaheisler.wordpress.com/2013/05/20/school-mass-media-and-its-influence-on-american-culture/