In the interest of full disclosure, I’m on Facebook, but I won’t get into all the things I hate about it. That’s not the point. The point revealed itself to me last night whilst swimming in the swill that is cable “news” opinion “journalism.” Yes, I love scare quotes, perhaps a bit too much, but those words in scare quotes demand them.
I'll take the automobile over social media any day.
Anyway, one of the guests on the show said that you can see cultural and economic progress in the rise of the young entrepreneurs who started Facebook and Twitter. I see the exact opposite. I see a culture that no longer makes things, but rather engorges itself in meaningless, shallow entertainment.
Most of the innovation we’ve seen in the information age has had little to do with making our lives easier or better, but has instead provided new and better ways to be social-media zombified couch potatoes.
While past generations were busily perfecting jets, rockets, the combustion engine and instant coffee, this generation is trying to figure out how best to get the latest scoop on Lady Gaga or Casey Anthony in 30 characters or less. You might say America is entertaining itself to death, and it very well may be. History is littered with great civilizations that imploded from the sheer weight of their decadence.
Perhaps I sound like each generation’s grumpy old man, though I’m not that old, but admittedly somewhat grumpy. Every generation likes to bitch about the generation that follows, and for good reason. It is quite likely that progress is a bell curve that cannot be sustained. At least that’s what history has taught us. Therefore, older generations may have a point about previous generations, possibly starting around the time of the Civil War.
My theory is that America has already reached its potential and is on the right (or wrong, if you prefer) side of the bell curve. The culture has objectively declined in recent years. While parents in the ‘50s were aghast at the pelvis of Elvis, just imagine what they’d think of (insert name of just about any pop star). The juvenile and prurient nature of today’s pop culture does not represent progress toward higher forms of art. Rather, it represents regression to tribal, animal-like forms, a regression that has been ongoing for years.
And while we revel in the ingenuity of iPhones, iPads, Androids, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and whatnot that ensure we’re constantly immersed in regressive pop culture crap, what the hell are we making? Absolutely nothing. We’re becoming less connected as we become more connected, and more distracted from the things that really matter.
In the process, we become more willing to cede our independence and liberty if it will buy us precious app time to play with our doodads. This is not a recipe for a healthy and progressive society.
The face of modern-day slavery.
Adrian Peterson, he of the Minnesota Vikings, recently compared playing in the NFL to slavery. Just to make sure I don’t take this out of context, Peterson said:
It’s modern-day slavery, you know? People kind of laugh at that, but there are people working at regular jobs who get treated the same way, too. With all the money. The owners are trying to get a different percentage, and bring in more money.
So, the owners are “trying… to bring in more money,” a.k.a., capitalism. Ironically, Peterson’s agent, who warned us not to take Mr. Peterson’s comments out of context, is also “trying… to bring in more money.” Hell, I’m “trying… to bring in more money.” Is there anyone who’s not?
In fact, if this is what “modern-day slavery” is all about, sign me up! For a cool $10 million or so each year, which is Mr. Peterson’s slave wages, I’ll put up with owners trying to bring in more money.
So, I double-checked my history books regarding old-timey day slavery and found that it was quite a bit different than “modern-day slavery.” The biggest difference was that, back then, slaves didn’t have agents or collective bargaining.
I haven’t been doing a good job of keeping up with the Joneses. It seems like everyone I know not named Club Soda is using a smart phone these days. iPhones are great, but I didn’t want to leave Verizon for a variety of different reasons. Mainly due to the fact most of my family uses Verizon and free calls all over the United States is a nice feature. Unfortunately Verizon hasn’t had a great smart phone until now.
I was eligible for an upgrade so I got the Motorola Droid for only $99. It costs an extra $30 a month for the data plan. I’ve only used the iPhone a little so I can’t really compare it to that device, but the Droid does pretty much everything I’d expect a smart phone to do. It syncs with my work and personal email accounts. I can tweet and follow tweets from the device (follow: DailyPlunge). It browses the web, gives turn by turn directions, and there are variety of different apps available. Basically every popular app I’ve ever heard of on the iPhone is available for the Droid.
The Droid uses Google’s Android OS which might spell doom for Microsoft’s phone OS. There are something like 50 phones coming out this year that use Android. Android is open, flexible, and easy to use. Overall I’m very happy with the phone. I can’t see a real reason for anyone to switch from the iPhone to the Droid; however, I can’t see why anyone would leave Verizon to get the iPhone when there’s now a comparable device available. The Droid is going to be a big hit for Motorola, Google, and Verizon.
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