by Lewis Jackson (June 08)
Today’s world is characterized by speed; we are a people that are truly on the move. From the angered banging of the table when a program fails to load instantaneously, to the hurried cadence of the march which characterizes today’s executive; we are ceaseless in our efforts to speed things up. Today’s world is not satisfied with anything but instant gratification, and the entire service industry has adapted to fit our desire. One has only to look as far as fast food, one of the most defining concepts of our generation to see our desire projected onto food as well. We have let speed become one of the most treasured qualities of today’s marketplace, where speed and its sister ease of use rule an oligarchy of thought.
This epidemic of thought is most visible in the desperately treasured youth of today. Having grown up at the very cusp of the technological revolution, knowing nothing of the before and seeing only before it the boundless open spaces offered by this delightful new medium, this generation has not stopped in its ceaseless journey forward. Technology and its mediums are the train pushing forward, building its rails as it goes, and sitting atop in true pioneer fashion: with the wind in their faces and the excitement ever-present, is this generation. Information technology has managed to accomplish something unique to technology of the past, in that it can self-replicate fast enough to update itself. The train never fears a lack of fuel, for with every day there comes a new sacrifice to the furnace.
So we sit upon the train, and we scream, oh how we scream our lungs out. We pat each other on the back, and gaze with awe upon our surroundings. Yet there seems to be a problem: we can’t hear each other over the rush of the wind. Ah well, we sigh, hand signs will suffice; yet secretly we sigh with relief at no longer having to talk to fatso at the other end of the train, hand signals being so easy to ignore after all. Information technology is unique among our many creations in that it has managed to magnify the creator. Our own creation has managed to turn itself upon us, and Technology now has highlighted the innate selfishness of man.
Man has shown throughout his long and colorful history to have the capacity for extreme acts of dastardly evil, yet also a redeeming quality expressed within his ability to love unconditionally. However, man has long struggled with his darker nature, and oftentimes it comes to the fore, with selfishness and greed taking the forefront; disguised with words like “independent,” “motivated,” “self-reliant,” and “driven.” Technology today has allowed man to be able to think about the one thing man holds most important: himself, and at the same time degrade the level of effort needed to deal with less important things, namely: other people. Oh man hides it well, cowering behind large checks and bags of rice, disguising it with soup kitchens and homeless shelters; but at the end of the day the majority of mankind cares well and truly only for themselves. And as we all know too well, the majority is all that matters in this world.
Many will question, for technology has wormed its way into our lives with brightly colored boxes, dazzling displays and lovely buttons, all proclaiming instant communication, ceaseless connections and social networks to daunt a hedonist. However, technology has put in our hands the answer to most of man’s secret prayer; we can now have nothing to do with people yet seem to have a discernable impact on their lives. Man no longer has to care, yet we can hide this relief; it is after all culturally looked down upon, behind the speeding train of technology. When one does not have to listen to another person, it is oh so easy to ignore them in all but the superficial and engross oneself in the most important thing in the world: oneself. This is seen as negative by our collective culture, but is one of those curious hypocrisies in which we look down upon something we secretly long to be able to do. We condemn most strongly that which tempts us the most, after all what else would garner so much of our attention?
Facebook is one of the most obvious offenders in this category, reducing complex human interaction to the clicking of a few buttons and the tapping of a few keys. While Facebook would proclaim to have laid the entire gamut of human interaction down in one small easy to use interface, thus enabling us to share ourselves with more and more people, Facebook has in fact allowed us to show interest in people’s lives for absolutely no effort. No longer does one have to calendar friends’ birthdays, laboriously buy a birthday card, nor write a message longer than “Happy Birthday,” and then mail it off. Effort is no longer needed, and therefore dead. Man’s greatest dream is accomplished: being able to appear to show interest in the life of another, cultural decorum must be maintained after all, yet contribute no effort to such an action. For interest in another’s life by definition requires effort on the investigating part with little or no promise of return, a thought most painful to the majority of humans. Where once we would have had to make a painful effort, where no desire to was exhibited; now we can use absolutely no effort to make a gesture that by dint of this lack of effort should be meaningless. Social networking has not brought people closer, it has allowed people to send nothingness to more and more people with no extra input. For what effort is needed to type out a few words and click send? It is a fallacy exposed only once one can recognize nothing for what it is, however today’s world has gone a long way into disguising nothingness as substance. It could be argued that today’s entertainment world is growing more and more adept at this process. Yet one could argue that it is merely humanity, by dint of internal urge, has destroyed its ability to discern something from nothing. After all, if one does not practice, one forgets.
At this current point, the lie is kept alive by our cultural perceptions. At this point it is still culturally desirable to care for people, and more so to want to care for people. However this is beginning to fray at the edges, already we joke about “not giving a shit” or being “too busy.” This is still said of course with a quick look around to judge for approval, and the phrase “just joking” being on the tip of our tongues. Yet this cultural desire, to want to care for others, conflicts with most people’s priorities that being of course themselves. Yet our society allows for us to once again make a gesture with no discernable efforts. Charity exists to take advantage of this innate desire, and thrives on donations of people, people claiming to be putting others first by dint of giving their own money. However, most money given is what can be afforded, therefore it requires no effort. What is it to give $10,000 when one has millions? The gesture fulfills cultures expectation yet allows us to expend no effort; a perfect win-win situation.
One question however looms large. Culture which is in essence collective human opinion does change, and if current human opinion stands at this point, how long before culture is changed and this final motivator is removed. Technology is well on the way to accomplishing this, with the latest Farce being Facebook’s: “Click to donate a dollar to African children,” or other similar hyperboles. A forerunner to this was of course the infamous forward emails with their sugared promises of “A dollar donated for each forward.” If one thinks logically, one realizes that no money will be donated, and that clicking will not in fact feed the starving multitude. However, thinking is oh so much trouble. Why bother your mind and conscience with questions such as this, when to click is to layer on the soothing balm of satisfaction and enable you to continue with your own priorities, having fulfilled your “quota” of good deeds. This is in essence doublethink as outlined by George Orwell in “1984.”
There is a danger in this, this fear of thinking, this selfishness, that has been foretold many times over. Bradbury touches on it in “Fahrenheit 451,” where a society ceases to think, where instant pleasure and acceptance is simpler and easier. The danger is ourselves and comes from ourselves. We want everything now, and we want not to care. Oh how we wish we did not have to care, for to care is to worry, and when one worries one is not having fun. Yet beware this path, for oversimplification means the sacrifice of what may define us as human.
