This weekend I will once more brave the British railway system, I suppose I should view it with affection as it is one of the few things that hasn't changed with the advent of the 21st Century, it is as still as inefficient as I have always remembered. As I contemplate the treacherous adventure that is in front of me I began to think of the differences that have happened in my lifetime and the impact that they have made.
I have very little idea who reads my blog (that is about to change) but I know for fact that there will be a young lady in Canada taking in each and every word – something that I wouldn't even of been able to imagine 15 years ago, then came the technological revolution.
You can only know what you are taught, told and experience and that's where the technological advances of the past decade or so have changed everything. Growing up as I did in the 80's, I sampled a slow change in what was available to everyone but the most I knew about other cultures and different ways of life was the next door neighbour telling tales of a week in Benidorm or the through the media – my next point.
When you can't see you have a reliance on others to paint the picture for you, that is what the media did for everyone until quite recently. How would I know what America was like without someone telling me? How would I know what Americans were like without someone else informing me? Simply there was no way hence all trust was put in second hand opinionated information. Ask any two people to describe the same thing, you will get two different answers – that is why we need to find out for ourselves.
I tend to appear that I have a very low opinion of the modern world and all the contraptions that come with it but that isn't strictly true. There won't be an invention with such a far reaching affect than the internet in my lifetime, I will probably be proven wrong now I've said that. The internet has opened the largest opportunity for discovery and knowledge that has ever been available.
It is as easy to communicate with someone on the next continent as it is on the next street, more importantly the barriers of discovery and understanding have been removed and stereotypes can be cast to the wayside exactly where they belong. The world now has a very real opportunity to unite itself by each individual undertaking their own investigations into how the world as a whole relates to them, who they can relate to and what they can learn from the new insights.
As an individual I often wonder why certain events happen, want to understand the significance of them but looking from afar with diluted knowledge that had always been difficult, that changed the day the world was given the chance to metaphorically hold hands.
No longer do we need to accept what we are told to be the truth, experiences are literally at the fingertips and the expansion of our knowledge is only limited by ourselves. As I said at the top of the piece my words will be beamed across as far as Canada, these words won't be interpreted by someone else before they get there, the meaning won't be warped.
As I prepare to step back in time I doth my cap to the advances of the modern day.
Good night everyone
Enjoy today, look forward to tomorrow.
The internet.
ReplyDeleteIt makes us not only connect to other continents like you could your neighbour, it does it better.
With the same reasons you give for making it easier to converse with strangers,lack of stereotypes and the like, we have all become pretty used to being able to make friends easier through our keyboard than in person.
I have been blessed with the gift of gab. In person, on the internet, on the phone, doesn't really matter where but I do, find myself sitting in my chair in CANADA, reading this and seeing the words for what they are, how they are meant, not changed by the way someone turns their mouth up at certain parts or shakes their head to others.
There will never be a more 'knitting' type of technology again. You can be yourself, say what you like, expect nothing more than realism from both parties and share your views with THE WORLD! By sitting in your chair. You will never know who has been touched by your conversation or who will touch yours. All you can do, is ..... keep 'em commin'