Get Shot? Or Hand Over Phone? Tough Call.

After touching on technology today in class, and talking about how we have become really attached to technology, I began to think about this article I read about a guy getting shot because he wouldn't hand over his phone. He was being robbed on the Brooklyn Bridge, and he refused to give up his cell phone, so the assailant shot him in the leg. The article was titled "Tough Call" and talks about how New Yorkers may be a little too attached to our cell phones.

But strangely, on some really weird level, I can empathize with the man's choice. Cell phones have become a part of who we are. I don't know anyone my age without a phone, and I barely know any people who don't have their phone on them 24/7. Many people complain they feel nervous or anxious when they leave their phone at home. I even know people who sleep with their phones in their hand, or right next to them. Has our relationship with technology become to close? I understand the comforting feeling of always being connected to others and knowing that people can reach you, or vice versa, whenever they need or what. The article also brings up the idea that, "cell-phone users are free to do a number of things the phoneless are not—like showing up late to dinner, or rescheduling appointments on the fly. They are, in short, free to be more irresponsible adults" (http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/columns/intelligencer/n_10247/).

While I understand this perspective, I find myself wishing it wasn't true. I think that we need to become less dependent on technology, and I think it would be interesting to see what it was like to live in a world where we couldn't contact anyone, anywhere, at anytime.

Recently my mom sent me a funny little email about the generational gap between her childhood and mine:

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning...Uphill...Barefoot... BOTH ways yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia! And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!

There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!

Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our ass! Nowhere was safe!

There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!

Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car..We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished, and then the tape would come undone rendering it useless.

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that's it!

There weren't any freakin' cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn't make a damn call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your "friends". OH MY GOD!!! Think of the horror...not being in touch with someone 24/7!!! And then there's TEXTING. Yeah, right. Please!

And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent...you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We didn't have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your screen guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen...Forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!! NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?!

There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-finks!

And we didn't have microwaves. If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove! Imagine that!

And our parents told us to stay outside and play...all day long. Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort. And if you came back inside...you were doing chores!

And car seats - oh, please! Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on. If you were lucky, you got the "safety arm" across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling "shot gun" in the first place! See! That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled rotten! You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980 or any time before!

Regards,
The Over 30 Crowd

It's funny to think how drastically different our childhoods are, even though we are only one generation apart! I can't even fathom how different the childhood of my future children might be. With the constant evolution of technology, and the ever-changing relationship with our society, only time will tell how the next generation will live, and how ridiculous our way of living might seem.