Long ago, I stopped looking at vehicles. I couldn't tell the difference between a Honda or Chevy. All the cars kind of look the same to me. People say, "I saw you on such and such road and waved-didn't you see me?" Of course, I don't look at other cars, just the road, so I never see anyone. I'm really nearsighted, which also plays a part in not noticing friends or family in oncoming cars. If I do make them out in passing, it is too late to wave, so people think I'm snobby or angry.
I'm out of it in more ways, too. Just for kicks, I googled the Billboard top 100 and top 50 singles. Out of 150 entries, I recognized 28 artists(some duplicated like the Black Eyed Peas) and two songs (Boom Boom Pow, Kiss A Girl). This poor showing from someone who used to know even the most obscure group on the top 100. When and how did this happen? I swore to myself when I was 15 that I would NEVER ignore pop music-that if nothing else, I would at least know the most popular artists and songs, the top 40, etc.
At my last job, I worked with this boy genius kid who knew more about Excel and spreadsheets in general than anyone I've ever known. Today's 20 something kids have been taught about these useful programs and software apps in school, whereas, my generation was forced to learn on our own. It is no wonder that people my age can't find a job. We are dinosaurs. I'm a chemist, but even the periodic table is different now than it was when I was in school. Experimental physics and polymer chemistry has changed everything in industry and manufacturing. When I was in school, polymer chemistry was a chapter or two in your Organic Chemistry class. Now, you can major in polymer chemistry.
I kept my granddaughter on a recent Saturday. I used to think that I would have a lot to offer her in the way of knowledge and wisdom. I did graduate college with a 3.94/4.0 GPA. I consider myself intelligent, and yet, I wonder if my knowledge will be relevant by the time Jordan is old enough to understand things. Will she appreciate Nature, or will she become a city girl who would rather be shopping at the local mall? Will she care about what I think if, in her eyes, I am old and irrelevant and not 'with it'? Already, my advice to my daughter concerning finances doesn't make sense as I write checks and keep paper records and she banks and pays bills electronically. Will Jordan even want to visit me here, where there are bugs and mosquitoes? What do I have to offer? Will she be so bored she hates the place when she can't get her Tweets or Texts?
In a homesteading, subsistence lifestyle, one doesn't have a need to watch anything on Blue Ray. One doesn't really even need television. It is optional. My field peas don't need a podcast, and I can hear the rooster at 4 in the morning just fine without 4G.
Future Shock was written in 1970, I believe, but it is very relevant today. It is worth reading if you have never read it, and worth a reread if it has been a while since you did. If you are like me, you have forgotten a lot.
3 comments:
Don't feel bad, I'm with you on most of this stuff.
I do appreciate having had DSL for the past three years (a fluke that it came through our canyon at all), and our cell phone is a refurbished piece of junk that we only use on trips, but did not work in most of New Mexico.
I recently started to tweet (as encouraged by one long distance friend) from my computer (which is a laptop by choice)although I have no idea who reads these silly tidbits.
I've lived without television for over 30 years by choice, trading my time instead for knowledge and skills that only can be acquired from doing and being, not watching. The closer one lives to one's purpose there is no need to "escape".
Hopefully Jordan will grow up with an appreciation for who you are and for the Earth from her experiences with you. Never doubt that your world is making an impression on her soul.
I hate it when people talk about getting old... I hate it when my fingers are hard to move.. I hate when I watch those younger people text and I know I can't because my reading glasses are somewhere else.
Living long enough to be older means things change and others don't work the same way as they used to, that is getting older.
Bev you are one of the smartest people I have ever met let alone be able to call a friend, when I find something on the internet that I don't understand who do I turn to? You, and you have always been able to explain it.
There is only so much time in our worlds, only so much in the day and WE have to decided how to spend that time. Just because you have not used your time to keep up with the massive changes in technology does not mean you cannot do it, it just means you have other priorities. Maybe you'll get up tomorrow morning and decide you need to get current in your field, then you'll set out to do it. There is nothing out there that you can't learn Bev, you just have to want to do it.
Do you have an answering machine on your phone? I didn't for many years, I tried to avoid that technology, I did avoid that technology for many years... Then I broke down and afterwards wondered what I'd do with out it. Computers? Oh wow, have they changed our world....
Same for the cell phone, it's great for when I have a question or wonder if we need milk. It's just communication.
Blue Ray? Remember Sony Beta Max and VHS tapes? Same thing but different.. I think Blue Ray is the high definition of the DVD world.
I remember getting color TV, I have a daughter who could put a VCR tape in the machine and watch "Alice in Wonderland" any time she wanted since she could walk. I have daughters who can connect to the internet (and the world) with their phones all the time if they want and do it for less money than a dinner at Denny's would cost us. Things have changed a lot over the last few years... I'd be texting and have the world wide web on my phone if I could read it without my glasses.
Things change Bev, we change or not depending on our moods. Live your life like you want to.
Bev:
You don't give yourself enough credit and perhaps you give the younger generation too much. Some of us never had your brain to start with. Even if you lose half you mind you are still way ahead of most.
Yes, they can twitter, load videos on Facebook, assign a ring tone to a particular caller but do they have practical living skills?
I will give you two examples from this weekend. We went to buy school clothes (Tax free weekend in Tenn) The young lady running the register didn't know how to operate it. When she handed me the bill I quickly looked at the taxes paid and knew it was wrong. I ask my step daughter, who was busy texting someone and oblivious to anything going on, what 24.50 (the amount of taxable items) X 9.25% (the TN sales tax rate) She didn't know how to calculate this. She guessed moving the decimal 2 places which is close but not exact.
The second example of taking a dead battery to the auto parts store. The young man assured me they could check it and reached for a machine that would check all kinds of things. After testing it he said it was dead - no good. I asked how his machine worked and how it worked on an uncharged battery. Silence to every question. He agreed to charge it and retest. Final analysis - battery was good.
So Bev, instead of feeling old and irrelevant you should worry about the next generation that has trouble with critical thinking and calculations.
Final thought. Is it scary to think of a "medical professional" giving you drugs who may not bother to think or question the dosage? perhaps I am carrying this too far.
Dave
Lookout Mtn, GA.
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