Afraid to Judge

It is time once again for a blog reflection time for me. Many things have transpired since my last post. The most exciting of which is I got a job!! I have not begun it yet though--It is going to be a position working in a girls group home in Phoenix for a non-profit org called Creative Innovations. More on that I am sure, later.

Most of what i want to share however is not about future expectations and plans here in Arizona exactly, it is more about being unanimous with my sister and mother about the evils of technology! I can get so fired up about this and don't realize until it starts to come up in conversation. I am not sure about many things and am hesitant to label any "one thing" bad/evil/destructive/to be avoided, BUT...I KNOW it is ok to question where we are going as a people completely absorbed in being "connected". Honestly though (venting) I am getting tired, even of myself using that as an excuse for constantly checking texts, facebook, twitter, email, etc. Are we truly more communicable and connected to others because of all the new "applications"? Or have we increased our supposed popularity, mastered living on the surface by only exposing our best selves to the world? Were we even created with the capacity to maintain 1,500 friendships? It is incredible though because when you think about it in these terms, we are redefining certain vocabulary, like the word friend for example. I mean is that going to be a new definition in our dictionaries twenty years from now? Friend: a person one chooses to be able to view one's facebook profile page on the internet...and clarifying what de-friending and friending mean as well? HA! This in itself fascinates me and makes me think back to a book I read in school about creating new culture"

Here's an honest question from me- to you, readers:

Is a reason why we stay on our computers more and do less face to face interaction and traveling physically to see a friend or stranger simply from fear and anxiety? Or has it at least contributed to increased amounts of phobias and fears? I mean how many people have broken up or had hard conversations with another person over email or chatting online instead of watching the other person's reaction in their face and having to live with it? Isn't it somewhat easier to be more brutal or more blunt or just say things we wouldn't out loud, when we can type them to a screen with no face?

more venting--

A commercial we had to sit through at least 3 times before a movie this afternoon was from the NOW network informing us that millions of people bought their tickets on their phone or watched trailers of the film on their phone!!! Like OMG, who gives a F*%$!?? is what I'm screaming in my head!


Also I think about how unhappy and unfulfilled most people tell you that they are and want their lives to look and be different, then why not try cutting out some of the unnecessary? They can't unless they are totally convinced about the success of such an endeavour...most people will prefer to stay miserable but be "in the know" and up-to-date with the latest advancement, rather than try to alter something in their routine to allow space for peace to enter in. What happened to connection with oneself and one's God or Deity? So many things are dying and are becoming lost arts, lost habits, lost traditions and it pains me to see this happen. I keep feeling like I am so "old-fashioned" in a sense and want to try and explore and understand that; hopefully to do something productive about it but it kind of feels fruitless at this point because everyone seems to be enthralled in today's technology! And so I'm trying here to have a conversation about this, with those who may not agree with me. Because it is easier and convenient to just go on and on preaching to the choir (my mom and sister) about this stuff.

My sister brings up a good point in that technology these days are negatively affecting our children. They are getting used to instant gratification which will ultimately produce impatience, correct? And are we as creative now or inquisitive to find information when we know that google or wickepedia can answer anything we have? Will we ever have great musicians like in the past who composed symphonies when there's music accessible to us everywhere?

Perhaps it is from studying cultures alot that makes me wonder can I really say any kind of culture is bad or good? Who am I to say that writing on paper versus writing on a blackberry is better? (I know--Trees are saved using the blackberry, that is the obvious and use able excuse for defending this way of communicating) I don't know if people in the past before computers and multi-media were any less depressed and were more truly connected and simply better, more decent people, but I'm acknowledging that most of the time i do have that rosy-colored picture of the past...writing that now even seems very wrong and jumping to conclusions. I mean, aren't people continually the same in their flaws? Have we progressed much in ethics and morality? I mean were those who worked and tilled the ground for food and saw the entire process through to their dinner tables better off and more thankful people then we are now who shop thoughtlessly at the grocery stores and shove whatever in our mouths?

I need to stop ranting and raving at some point though, and choose to DO something in response.

I realize I am asking a huge question here, a question of humanity's progression through history and so forth...Is this just a fruitless enterprise? I don't think so because I don't want to become mindless and incapable of holding my own view on things and if we let something this big and expansive like technology rule our daily lives, than that cannot be good!
a conclusion:

I guess I hold by the philosophy that too much of anything is not good for you. And it definitely goes with technology these days.