Albert Einstein said,
“I fear the day when the technology overlaps with our humanity. The world will only have a generation of
idiots.”
Most
parents have heard a voice from the back seat asking, “Are we there yet?” If we’re not “there yet,” we're getting pretty
darn close to the “day” old Al feared.
Technology has exploded over the
past few decades. I remember using a
couple of tin cans and a string to talk to my brother in another room when we
were kids. It was actually easier to
yell at him, but we thought it was cool to talk long distance.
Then came the party line telephone
and the exciting opportunity to listen in on our neighbor Mildred complaining
to Ethel about the theft of her prize watermelon during the night by evil
neighborhood boys. My friends and I would
sometimes camp out overnight in my backyard and we’d always get hungry. Who
doesn’t like watermelon?
“Number
please” was the voice of the operator, who could somehow facilitate a conversation,
if the line was clear. But methods of conversation today seem less personal. We keep in
touch with friends via email. We don’t
even have to say anything. We can simply
forward a joke. But that's a form of
contact and it maintains the connection. And that's not bad.
My wife says
that boys and girls communicate differently.
Little girls sit face-to-face and look at each other as they talk. Boys sit side-by-side staring at a dirt clod and
talk to each other without making eye contact.
Evidently girls communicate more intimately and personally than
boys. Maybe eye contact is the key. Today kids sit side-by-side and text each
other.
All this techie stuff seems to come
naturally to my grandkids. How do they
do it? Maybe it’s some sort of
neurological mutation caused by microwaves in the atmosphere or a dormant gene
that hatched spontaneously in these kids caused by eating McDonald’s Happy Meals.
I hope Einstein is wrong, but
personal contact and communication does seem to be on the wane. I use email.
And I use the computer. I also depend on my GPS to find my way from the
kitchen to the bathroom. But since we can’t get cell phone reception here in
the mountains, my cell phone is as useless as the breasts on a cloistered
nun. I only keep the phone as a status
symbol. Most folks up here rely on smoke
signals.
I have to confess that all these
computers and phones with buttons and beeps make me feel like an idiot. But I
think my generation has managed to balance technology and humanity.
Women still talk to women and make
eye contact and men still talk while watching football on TV. But how
can you make eye contact when your team is in the red zone with a 6 point
deficit and 3 seconds to go in the game?
Any guy who tries to make eye contact with another guy in a situation
like that is too light in the loafers to be watching a football game anyway.