As the infection of "advancement" slithers across the globe people are evermore disconnected and seemingly welcoming of this enlightenment. Disguised as a convenience of modern daily life these gadgets forever keep us connected and ever at the ready yet disconnected in the sense of human decency, polite conversation and manners. Privacy is no longer possible unless you’re dead, even then there’s a "profile" accessible with a touch of the keys, forever judged. Under the guise of protecting the populace from "evil" cameras are stealthily everywhere, and welcomed when one is used to save some poor innocent from peril. With these electronic tools needed to negotiate and fulfill our days of toil "they" can now see into almost every thought, desire and step taken, equally able to track and stop you.. .in many senses and ways. Dependance upon the electronics of our demise total and willing.
These marvels in science and technology were at first lauded as wonders, then used in daily life as a means to do business. The telephone and radio used in ways mostly for good. Once seen as a form of entertainment that the family can sit together and enjoy after a fine meal, the radio spawned the imagination and brought countries together. This in turn beget the television, once the implications of big business were involved innocence turned to manipulation and the snowball of profits just rolled down the infinite hill, forever getting larger, just as in the car and oil industries, true scoundrels. Family conversations replaced by the latest waste of time disguised as a sitcom or “reality” show. Reality is now something you watch in a rectangular box, go figure.
For many years the telephone was used in daily life in the same medium, business pushed for the advancement in technology to work quicker by transferring information faster. Used to be when work was done and you were out of the house personal thoughts and times were your own, until actually handed a slip of paper or told of a call there were no obligations to anyone. First welcomed as a convenience and courtesy the answering machine was something to run home and check, the novelty of it all. As in a virus first thought of as a simple cold, the implications of this new convenience was soon realized when there were unforeseen obligations waiting at every sight of the "message" light. No longer able to escape the call for whatever lies ahead (to do so would draw whatever criticism or emotion from whomever is seeking you)a heavy hand goes to the “listen” button. Our time is now presumed by others. No excuse of not getting a message, wasn’t this supposed to be a good thing?
Television created a sense of urgency that changed the way people look at themselves. We are in a disposable, plastic society, with a series of unseen castes. At first glance the clothes you wear and car you drive implicate the person you’re supposed to be, not the shoes you fill thanks to the bombardment of advertisements letting us know how we should look, act, feel and perceive those around us. Many are unsatisfied with life because it’s not like the one watched every night, feelings of emptiness abound. With the need to be accepted children are pressured to "grow up" quicker and be something they’re not. The advertisers feed on this and in doing so create criminals too young to comprehend the consequences of their actions and adults numbing their minds and hearts by whatever means available. Don’t even get me started on the political serpent at our midst, buying in the form of conglomerates all the “media centers” they can and from there spew misinformation for their nefarious agendas.
Another miraculous form of mass communication that has completely changed the way human race is to evolve (or devolve) is the computer. Involved in every aspect of daily life, if we were to stop all the computers now, society as a whole would be shut down for a few days, the libraries would have to be found, opened and a book read. Ever faster and stronger these silicon chips are gathering every piece of information about you they can, think of it as an external worm ever inching into your psyche. Everything that is touched with a keyboard ends up in some chip... weird huh, by the way that chip has your name on it. These information gathering chips are now being "installed" in credit cards, dogs, cars, motorcycles, food packaging and soon to be ever popular the children. As a “favor” while walking down some isle or past some screen an advertisement will ‘pop” up or out and inform us of the peanut butter just passed on sale, you do like that brand right? Some "eye" somewhere read your "profile" and said so and hasn’t been wrong for years, it’s just now it can tell you so that’s all, how convenient. Lock your keys out of your car, call "them" they’ll let you back in, bike get stolen make a call and "locate" it within minutes even able to disable it, bad guys caught right?. Have "fast track" they call it that for a reason sucker.
Get your wallet stolen, that camera identified the dude, what camera? Located at the ATM or any storefront, how about the one that scans your license plate whenever a "patrol" cruiser drives by (really- look into it) All the new cell phones sporting cameras and iPod’s, Net availability and eventually GPS, the memory expanded "chips" ever able to get more personal "access"... communication flowing. A cellular phone now has the abilities of a personal computer and it can see and track every move and thought with extreme efficiency. What is there to keep other people out, and from "them" peeking in... nothing. With cellular phones being such an intricate part of our daily lives, no longer is there privacy in the sense of unaccessablity, to shut it off is a constant distraction, as in leaving the stove on or forgetting to lock the front door on a trip, it gnaws at you. What if someone’s trying to get a hold of you? An itch that must be scratched.
To wait is to be inconvenienced, which is an invasion on your superior sense of time. While placing your order at some counter to your perceived underling or having a conversation while lunching, the little box takes precedence, rudeness abounds, all on the streets are with phone to ear, just look, reminds me of a movie years back called "They Live" we’re not far off, except who’s in charge? No longer are there uninterrupted lunches or dates.” Hold On” is a common saying; except there’s no holding going on.
With implications of the power mass media can attain, conglomerates arose and countries strived to keep up. To be connected to the masses is to have a certain sense of omnipotence, for you can surely create pandemonium or ease at the flick of a switch. Mass communication can sway a population, it’s being done now. In the same way these powers can ruin a life with information given from communication received or “profiled”... soon to be vilified.
Keep an open ear so to speak, you wouldn’t want to miss something.
~Cheers, Alx