robbed by commodity

there was a commercial on the radio advertising a car that among other things will check your email and then read your emails aloud to you so you can focus on driving while you check your email. is this really what the world is coming to?

throughout my lifetime i have watched technology grow exponentially. when i was just a young kid, my parents had what i have now heard called dinosaur phones. they were these big bulky gray cell phones that were the size of regular household cordless phones and all they could do was make a simple call. it is amazing to me the transformation from that to the iphone in maybe just ten years. crazy childhood fantasy invention ideas are now a reality as a result of the growing technology.

when i was a kid i was always outside; riding my bike, skateboarding, playing with the neighbor kids, playing baseball in my backyard and the street, on my swing set, etc. now im inside on at a computer, browsing the internet, refreshing the same few pages checking for anything new. im not much different than the kids these days, the kids i work with ask me if i have an xbox, if i play this game or that game, if i watch this show or whatever. outside activities that i used to engage in can now be simulated with a wii or other gaming devices and one does not need to leave the family room and while sitting in front of the television one waxes the idea of physical activity. living in these imaginary worlds of role playing games, kids today are being robbed of their own imagination and creativity because the fantasy worlds are already readily available cutting out the imaginative process.

the emphasis on technology is so strong that people, processes, and engagement in real life are becoming obsolete and things that once took hours or days now can be done within seconds. messages or letters that once took days to get from place to place can now be sent and received within seconds via email or text message…communication can occur instantly between people on differing sides of the globe. the world really has become much smaller with the growth of technology. classes, entire degree programs, happen entirely online in a cyber world. (oddly enough “cyber” has a little red line under it still as i type it) in one of my classes the website “second life” was brought up. we discussed the pleasurable use of this website, but the professor also shared that rather than webct or moodle that our university uses, universities use second life for distance learning or online learning. on second life one creates an avatar and profile that represents him/herself and engages with others as one would in real life. with such, not only does one not need to engage in real life, but he/she does not even need to be who he/she is.

at what point does advancement cross the line of commodity and become theivery, of life? satisfaction and gratification have become instantaneous, life is so fast pace that people often forget to slow down, smell the flowers and recognize how beautiful the world is.

this question makes me think back to a conversation i had yesterday with a friend. i was teaching him how to process film and print from negatives. after walking out of the dark room four hours later he says to me “i could have done that in 30 minutes on photoshop”. to me photography (or any kind of art) isnt about ease or quickness, but the intimacy of creating something from nothing, having complete control of how a part of the world is viewed and understood, being able to make a statement or present my feelings or ideas. to me, processing film and printing from negatives is so much more real and intimate than clicking the shutter on a digital camera and watching the image appear on an lcd screen. that image that comes up isnt mine, its my cameras, all i did was push a button. this is when it really clicked for me; art is a hobby for me not a career or source of income.