First off I know the title contains an outdated phrase: “World Wide Web” is now known as just “The Internet” by virtually everyone you meet. However, the use of that term is more appropriate for this post. Let us consider for a minute what would happen if the entire planet went technologically dark. Does our generation even know how to function without Wikipedia, Google, and YouTube to explain things like simple recipes? Is the human mind losing or gaining memory? How dependent are social, economic, and everyday experiences on computers?
I’ll start with the first question, in a nutshell, no. How many people even own an atlas? Could you visit grandma without using Google Maps? Both those questions can probably be answered with another “no”. Then let’s consider everything else, the weather, email, instant messaging (IM), or Facebook. How long would it take before you’re stuck in a blizzard, lose contact with your best friend, and never remember a single birthday? Lots of questions, answer in a comment or just think about it.
Now we move onto the human mind; can you remember all those contacts in your iPhone? What about remembering an email? A phone number? Your own password? As technology grows, so does our ability to manage, store, and retrieve “memories” at will. No more pulling out the photo album when you can just pull up a Facebook album (I point out Facebook because Myspace in just a year has gone from hero to zero). Feel like you’re forgetting simple stuff if it isn’t written down? You’re not the only one.
My last big question. (Obviously there’s millions more but I just wanted to stick to these three.) When is the last time you stopped to talk to someone at the store verses talking to five people at the same time on your Intel? What is the proper way to start a phone conversation? Who ends that conversation, the caller or the callee? (Callee is a real word, I used Google to verify that, see my point?) How about asking someone on a date without texting it?
My entire point being; people need to think for themselves. If we can’t function without technology then what makes us any better than that dusty Mac computer sitting in your attic? Are we ourselves computers? What is software without the hardware? Nothing. Online society is an easy way of killing offline society. (A side note to any readers, I love technology but I love friendly tech, things that better the world online and off- like WordPress. Try limiting your time on social networks, read a book, not on the computer. Take the time to remember things yourself instead of having your harddrive do it for you. Trust me, your brain will thank you one day.)
Here’s our site’s URL embedded in the below QR barcode:
QR barcodes are the next generation of high tech tracking. They allow an individual to embed words, phone numbers, emails, or even a website address in a compact and machine-readable code. First used in regular packaging systems, now they are showing up everywhere. I just saw one at the end of a commercial and another on the back of a business card. Currently the Droid smartphone can read them as can newer Blackberries; it’s only a matter of time before they are put as a standard into phones. And then become…. The new URL embed. The new ad code. The future of small information technology. Get your’s below!
The above barcode was made at: http://www.barcode-generator.org
An alternate generator can be found here: http://www.qr-barcodes.com/online-generator
And another here: http://qrcode.kaywa.com
OR download a barcode generating program from: http://www.zint.org.uk
In our modern world, seen by people decades or even centuries ago, people dreamed of peace. Ideas of nanobots, moving sidewalks (the LA airport doesn’t count), and technologically advanced society. Now it seems we are taking all the wrong directions. It takes weeks to get to trapped miners, simple oil spills cannot be stopped, and the occasional rouge unmanned aircraft threatens innocent citizens. I’m sure Columbus, B. Franklin, and G. Washington didn’t imagine the world’s technology at our fingertips but the use of it for things like invasive scanners or heartless warfare. Personally I enjoy the ancient idea that countries’ rulers would go into battle with the troops, it would cut back on wars. We spend thousands to stop things like Wikileaks and The Pirate Bay but ignore the fact our own infrastructure is failing. I experience frequent power outages, slow Internet connection, and days for a service as simple as plumbing to get here. Yet NASA is spending millions crashing a rocket into the Moon. Politics is becoming a thing for older generations, not to so naively word that, but teens and young adults of today support different causes like “going green”. No young people care to watch presidential speeches; for that matter older people don’t care either.
So what changes? Why aren’t we using flying cars and home holograms? Why do Coke commercials have to remind us there’s no time machines? Any and everyone reading this is responsible for what’s happening. If you don’t like it…. run for president, governor, city mayor. And then: invent, innovate, IMPROVE!
As a side note, look on the right-hand side. There’s “Awesome Links”. Have a useful site? Your own blog? A dramatic vid? Comment below or contact me and I’ll add it.
**Update: I had no idea but apparently today is “Blog Day”. And I happened to have already posted three other blogs in the Awesome Links section, guess this link is a fourth, almost to the goal of five!
