1.06.2011

The Shape of Things to Come

I finished Matched by Ally Condie this week! I have to say I love futureific stories and the whole concept! It seems like a world so foreign to our own, but really we are only a few short years away. I read THIS article on yahoo today. GO read it really quick! While I think the world that our kids will become adults in is fasinating, I NEVER, EVER want to see the written word or HANDWRITING to fade away! That is one thing from the book that I couldn't stand! Everyone in Condie's world wrote on "tablets" a small portable computer. (Sound strangely familiar?) Except there was ONLY a keyboard. There were no pens. There was no paper. There was no library. There was no CREATION, nothing new. No one knew how to write, or how to do more than their "vocation." (No one crocheted or did a journal or even knew how to do two jobs!!!) A limited world that gave the illusion of offering you everything you ever wanted. Scary. I don't want Autumn to be in that world. After reading that article, it puts technology advancements in a proper prospective. How close are we to a paperless society? How close are we to blogs BEING OUR ONLY journal?! How close are we to the future that people have dreamed up for so long? Technology always scares me like this! We can invent ANYTHING! *sigh*

Please tell me you feel the same way! Or that you think I've completely lost all my marbles. It's just so scary to think that our future will be like that article or even like the world in Matched.

*sigh* END rant. ;) thank you have a nice day! lol.

1 comment:

Elis said...

I was saying something almost just like this to my husband the other day! I was talking about how much I love and miss rotary phones, and that I didn't think most kids today would know what they were like, or the distinctive feeling of using the dial to enter a number. :) It's funny though, because everyone says they are "dialing" a number when they call someone, but unless you are using a rotary phone, you're not really "dialing"! ;)

Anyway, I have mixed feelings on this subject, so I both agree and do not agree with what you said. There are certain things that will be replaced by newer technologies (like the rotary phone), and while some people who remember these things fondly will hold them in their hearts for a while, eventually they will be totally forgotten or relegated to a "trivia" page in a history book. There are also those technological advances that are not only needed, but can change things for the better--like advances in health and medicine, things like electric cars, etc. All that said, I think there are some things that people will never let go of or forget about--like writing. Email is certainly a useful technology (I know I would have loved it when I was younger and all I had was snail mail!), but it can never replace the feeling of getting a letter in the mail, and there are definitely situations where only "snail mail" will do. As far as going paperless, I'm torn on that one. I think using less paper is something we should all strive for, yet I can't imagine a world where no paper is used at all...and I am not sure that it's possible, either.

It's interesting to think about, though. Have you ever seen the TV show "Fringe"? It's a sci-fi show, and there was an episode not long ago where people in an alternate universe were shocked to see a ballpoint pen because no one had used them in so long, they had become obsolete and practically non-existant. I'm a person who LOVES and is obsessed with old-fashioned things, yet I also love technology. I feel like I was born in a time that hovered near the line between "the old days" and the modern world, because I remember very well when we didn't have many of the things we have now. I feel lucky to be able to have experienced everything that I have, and I think it's up to those of us who do remember older ways of doing things to pass on that information to the younger generations so that they aren't forgotten about. :)
xoxox
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