Generation Gap

I’m calling this my old man rant. I’m far from old, but I am beginning to see the gap between myself and next generation. I have reached a point in my life that I am now twice the age of many graduating seniors. And now that I work in an environment surrounded by the aforementioned youths, I am finding some alarming trends. Yet, I’ve been pondering this one for a while…see, I started back in 2008 when I was attempting to get back into writing (this does not bode well for this to be a continuous venture, if history says anything about my dedication to the medium of writing). So bare with me as I take you back to my first attempt and try to pick it up 4 ½ years later, although much of it still applies…

I know, I know, it has been a while…a long while. Hey, it’s me, you know me. I haven’t changed much, same venue - different room. I’ve been thinking lately, that’s what abnormal amounts of quiet will do to you (that’s why you need to turn the music up loud kids). I’ve got a lot of things on my mind and I needed to reach in there and scoop it out like ice cream - I’ll let you add your own toppings

I figured all my ramblings couldn’t be encapsulated into a single, all-encompassing blog, but I think I might have come up with a theme, it might be a stretch, hang in there with me, hope you are flexible.

So here we are, still in the 0’s but almost out into those fun teen years,’08 to be more precise (at least I hope to be done with thing before the end of the year). Life and technology are moving faster than anyone can keep up with (yes, even you). No amount of doping or HGH will help you keep pace. I have come to observe that even the separation of a few years can greatly characterize where we are in our social interactions. Using myself as an example, and I always assume that I am the norm, deal, I graduated high school in the mid-90’s, attended college thereafter. During that time, the interwebs was coming of age to the general public, beginning in the academic arena. I had access to Netscape, newsgroups, and the beginning of what we called the world wide web (the www for those of you who didn’t know why we have to type that in front of our web address). My major form of communication in college was e-mail (see here for more info). Upon graduation I got my first cell phone (still have the same # I was first issued amazingly enough) and used it sparingly to call friends and family (again, see above link).

…so its now 2012, see much of the above still does applies, sadly. And yes, I still have the same phone number…hit me up! (the end of that sentence just shows you how out of touch I am with the new breed of teenagers) Obviously I did not finish that train of thought at the time, thus is sat on the shelf, collecting dust, allowing time pass, allowing more technology to be invented, and widening the gap between past and present. With technology developing at such an exponential rate, a lot has changed in that time. But with any advances in technology, and far too often, societal changes are not considered for the sake of greater laziness. I’m this has been believed since our grandfathers’ grandfathers experienced life with electricity for the first time, “these elevators are going to make these kids all fat and lazy.” If they only knew how right they were. Thus the reason why I am calling this my old man rant. Now, picking up where my ’08 self left off…

‘12, not yet a teen but in that awkward stage of development when you start noticing “those changes”. I can’t even imagine what life must be like for the youth of today, and I interact with them on a daily basis. One thing is for sure, their cell phones are firmly implanted to their person. If desire is the aspiration of progress, then you’ll be seeing Bluetooth contacts with a heads-up displace of cell phone screens in the not too distant future. (helps that I have already implanted suggested that idea to my student) I crossed out implanted because in the future they are going to implant microchips into our brains so can remember things. Which is a good thing because I read some where that access to all these search engines, looking up information instantaneously, is causing our long term memories to shrink. Until that is accomplished there’s a chance that my students won’t remember my suggestion and we’ll remain left with young, distracted danger-mobiles on our American roads. Let’s hope we all make it out of our teen years.

Don’t get me wrong, many of these advances have provided our population with improved quality of life, longer lives, easier lives, allowing us to do other things with our lives. However, much to the detriment to society, some of these technological advances can create unintended side effects. And if you don’t see the rise in popularity of zombie-themed pop-culture productions as a metaphor for our mindless dependence on technology, then maybe you are one yourself. And that’s today’s word.

Can't Make a Sound

Why I hate my job and other things that put me in the mood to listen to Elliott Smith. In a vain attempt to make myself the new dooce.com, sans the humorous literary commentary and edgy, put-it-all-on-the-table openness, let me just try relay to you the absurdity of my job. I am sure many of you can relate unless you work from home and never, ever, have to deal with stupid people. Right. So, now please join me in a collective scream at the top of your lungs to put you in the appropriate mood for the following diatribe on the fake plastic cubical life. Now let me preempt this by mentioning that I work at a technology helpdesk and I am happy to have a job that allows me to do many things other corporate type jobs do not allow, like access the internet [although that is kind of essential for this job], use a cell phone if need be, listen to music, and have flexible hours. But the pay is crappy so I guess it all works out. At least I have a job, albeit temporarily, but this is more a commentary for people who are stuck in jobs they would rather not be in…which I know is actually a smaller fraction than many people would believe. See, in America we have the fortunate opportunity to seek other employment if we are unhappy with our current one, given the right skill set and desire. I just happen to be in one of those transitional periods where I am trying to acquire the necessary skill set to move on to something I prefer better than this current situation…which is just about any other job.

Any given day begins with the blaring, earlier-than-the-Devil-wakes-up ungodly hour alarm that varies between pitch black and blinding sunlight throughout the course of the four seasons on Earth.

Step 1: Sleep walk to the shower while avoiding serious toe stubbing or forehead rapping, always a craps shoot on hot water availability, and stare blankly at the man you have become in the mirror wondering where the years went and why evolution hasn’t stopped your beard from growing so that you don’t have to shave at least once a week.

Step 2: Clothes. Inevitably whatever you wear will not be appropriate for whatever occasion or weather that will have to be faced that day. “I swear the weather said it would be sunny and 85 today.” And as you attempt to run in between the downpour raindrops to your car, you remember you have a meeting with the boss’ boss’ boss today: performance review. You know, the one after the one you got the comments about dressing more appropriately for work. And on that day you thought it was “wear your favorite character’s costume from Pirates of the Caribbean day” at work.

Step 3: The commute. For whatever reason, no matter what time you head to work, EVERYONE in your city/town is also heading to work at that time, and all of them are late for work. No matter how fast you drive, it is never fast enough so cars weave around you like you are one of those cones on the stunt driving courses you see in the car commercials because the late employee commuter is exactly the target market they envisioned when engineering that car.

Step 4: Find a parking spot. This may not pertain to everyone but anyone who works in a city or for a large university knows what I’m talking about. That fun musical chairs game like they have in that new VW, Kia, or Volvo commercial, except involving more fender-benders – not a very safe game to play kids. Don’t try it at home. Or your other option is to pay what amounts to higher rent to park your car than to live in your first apartment…and still have to walk a half mile to your desk.

Step 5: Get to your desk. Imagine it is the Middle Ages and you have been stripped naked, forced to run a gauntlet of whips and spits, mud and crud, and chains and rains. Except in the modern office it is each and every co-worker making a comment about getting caught in the rain, or something about the weather, or “how was your weekend?”, “Its Friday!” or “I can’t wait until the weekend, the week is going by sooooo slow”, that ridiculous minutiae that excels in wasting that precious life minutes at a time. It regurgitates that vomit you had been repressing since that Friday night binge you went on just to forget all that tedious bullshit in the first place.

Step 6: Start it up. Oh, flashbacks to corporate retreats and team building exercises to the Rolling Stones…the head’s still pounding, like a bad brain freeze. OK, now go through your mental checklist: caffeine – check, writing utensils – check, paper – check, phone login – check, deafening volume emitting headphones – check. Now, if the stars align just right, the planets make a straight line from the sun outward, and comet dust is sprinkled just in the right places then your computer will turn on, have internet connection, and the e-mail servers will be actually delivering messages.

Step 7: Work? Probably the high point of the day comes just before you start doing actual work, for a few short, brief minutes you check your personal e-mail, catch up on the late sports results, check your fantasy sports squads, get updates on world and local news events, and read those daily comics. Then it is all down hill from there - for the entire rest of your work day. And by the end, you finish lower than when you started, kind of like the stock market during a recession.

Step 8: Work. Don’t get too excited now. I know you are in your 8’ x 8’ cubicle surrounded by people who might actually want to do less work than you and the only windows you get to look at are provided by Bill Gates and expand to a whopping 19” at best, but please hold the enthusiasm – serious work needs to be accomplished. Alright, time to start taking a few calls…forgot your password? OK, no problem. Why? How am I supposed to know why you forgot your password? Maybe you should take out that stupid rod that’s impaled through your skull. Yes, that very thick skull. There, now isn’t that better? Oh, watch out! Oh no, I think you might have just been stabbed by the idiot stick. Yes, you need to use a number in your new password, see, exactly how it tells you there in the instructions on the screen in front of you. Thank you for call, look forward to talking to you in about 5 minutes when you forget what you set it to. Bu bye.

Step 9: Avoid work. Now is the time you seek out any and all possible avenues to avoid doing actual work. Use the bathroom, take a smoke break (even if you don’t smoke), walk around with papers in your hand and look really frustrated like you are trying to accomplish something really important or looking for someone to help you, this will send any and all running in the opposite direction. Check work e-mail even if you have read it all already, gives you a good excuse not to be answering phone calls. One hour later, answer another call just to keep a good appearance. Hello. Your computer’s not working you say? OK, what seems to be the problem? It is not working, hmm. You tried turning the monitor on and off? That’s good, that probably should have worked, yeah, definitely, good work. Now how about we actually try restarting the computer. Yes, that box looking thing on the floor. Yeah, it sure does take a while to load. What can be done to fix it? Besides removing the 18 IM applications that all load at start up? Yes, I understand, you gots to stay in touch with your peeps. Yeah. No, you probably should be trying to open that application while the computer is still booting, most likely why it takes even longer to open it. Oh, it is working now? Yeah, pretty amazing. Yes, it must be because you called the helpdesk, haha, never heard that one before, it always seems to work when you are talking to us, yes. Murphy’s law, yep, uhmm, yep. OK, bu bye.

Step 10: Lunch. Yes, that’s right, it is only lunch time.

Speaking of which, time for me to take a break. I should finish this on Monday and post the rest then. Appropriately on a Monday. You might see a different mood in that post, should be fun.

Blog Surfing

Blog surfing, or hopping, or spin the roulette wheel, watch the tiny ball bounce around in a circle to fall on…some random French blog. OK, one more time, place your bets…a 27 year old Chinese web designer. And needless to say, other more non-appropriate web sites have also been encountered. Maybe this blog roulette game isn’t the best way to pass one’s time trying to find good blogs.

Then again, sometimes you come across posts like this:

“I am a gangsta!I am a gangsta!Gansta drink milk.. Yummy.Gansta eat pies.. Yummy.Gansta say he's gangsta.. Yay.bah, ok..I got a new phone!!! WOoHOOOOO!!!!”

Now that is some informative, thought provoking, hard hitting blogging one comes to expect from the blog ‘verse. Honestly, I think a majority of the people who blog nowadays do it for no specific reason whatsoever. Venting, ranting, entertainment, personal statements, keep in touch with friends or make new ones. Some are themed with multiple contributors, some are aimed at specific people. Regardless, blogging is just another form of subversive communication that looks to undermine actual communication. The youth of our generation could presumably live an entire life only knowing and communicating with people online, with little need for real personal interaction. Pretty soon we’ll all just be meeting at virtual bars with our 2-D pictures floating around checking out other 2-D pictures before getting annoyed at the pictures who are dancing on top of the tables screaming the lyrics to some Gwen Stefani song. Oh, and dropping about an $80 tab. Nice. But hey, it will all work out when you save that money on the cab ride home and the 6 pizzas you order when you get there…for yourself because it just sounded like a reallllllyyy good idea. Best ever. You are a genius.

Sorry, back to blogging, and isn’t sort of paradoxical to be blogging about blogging? I should mention the small percentage of blogs that I have found thus far to be fairly entertaining – they’re like social glimpses into lives of people that have nothing to do with your life in any way, none, sort of like watching a reality TV show but with a bit more honesty and a lot less acting. Just in this session of Blog surfing:

http://darling247.blogspot.com/ (a vet with 190+ posts, long posts)
http://jekkababy.blogspot.com/ (aspiring Peace Corp member)
http://marisa-peek.blogspot.com/ (world traveler)
http://thedancingkids.blogspot.com/ (think of the traveling gnome)

But really, just like gambling, that ‘Next Blog>>’ link at the top using blogspot is about as addictive as, well, gambling…only without the fear of losing your entire life’s savings – although you never know in this day and age.

Exposed

This recent and overwhelming call to blog has left me with quite a dilemma. As a few of my closest confidants warned me of the dangers of putting yourself out there on the internet, you know, expressing an opinion. Particularly for someone who will be entering a career in the public sector, and as important as the one I have chosen. Yes, you guessed it…Miss America. Oh, now that would be a funny post. (Speaking of which, Miss USA Tara Conner will be on Larry King Live this evening at 9pm)

See, here I had planned on writing a witty repartee on the pageant and male competitors but I feel that I must censor myself, thus not be funny, thus return to the true, underlying topic at hand: Internet and the public sphere. Miss America, or Teen Miss America, you know, the one the Donald let off the hook with a slap on the wrist. Well, I would like to think that Donald Trump is aware of the changing and modernizing of American culture. Kids, young adults, and even recent college graduates have been exposed to the internet since they could walk and talk, some even before. Computers and the internet are revolutionizing the world in ways that we can’t even predict. Just the other day, I was having lunch at a decent eatery in the area. The popularity of said eatery required close proximity to other patrons. Conversations were inevitably overheard (ironically like posting on the internet) and a group of recent college graduates were seated next to us. One of the young women exasperated on about a situation she recently had. The long short of it is, she used a phrase so common nowadays that it should be place along side the annals of such verbs as googled, or, well… blogged. She ‘myspaced’ a recently encountered individual and found some unwanted information involving a fiancé, yada, yada, yada. Other warnings have crossed my path recently from professors and relatives and here I pass it on to you dear readers / fellow bloggers. Anything – ANYTHING – you post on the internet, no matter how secure or believed private sites, can resurface in the future. Information, media, pictures, all can be downloaded, copied, stored, re-posted halfway across the globe.

Picture this, you are a 9 year old kid, you Dad tells you to do something cool while he is pointing his phone/digital video recorder at you. So you start gyrating and breaking off some funky funk moves in your kitchen…next thing you know little kids in Taipei are gathering around a laptop watching you go all weeble-wobble like. Eight years later you are randomly on vacation in New York City, walking with your lady and you see yourself on the big screen in Time Square and she breaks down in hysterical laughter. Then they turn it into a Cisco commercial…not cool.

Moral of the story my children…lock yourself in the deepest, darkest, devoid of all light and technology dungeon, with only books, musical instruments (no recording devices), and Tom Hanks movies until everyone is low-jacked and walking around in one-piece silver jump suits.

Communi-can't

Well, the world has spun around one rotation to bring us to another day…and another blog.

So since I decided to start this blog a whopping 2 days ago, I have notice myself saying the phrase, “I should blog about this” way too often. Apparently there are a lot of topics that can be blogged about. Because no one in the right mind would actually talk aloud about half the crap they would write about into cyberspace. So here we are, another day, another topic not worth talking about to another human being…

Funny thing was, I was going to write about procrastination, but I’m going to procrastinate on that and write about a topic that just popped into my head…communication. More specifically - the lack of face to face communication in the modern society. I like to consider myself an amateur sociologist since that was my undergraduate major, and since you can’t do anything with that as a major except consider yourself an amateur sociologist, I believe is enough right to expostulate on social communication and the effects of modern technology on social interaction…Sure, why not. So let’s delve, yes let us. So head down to your local College/University in between classes and you will find a disproportionate number of students surgically attached to cell phones and/or iPod devices. I should preface with the fact that I am not here to ridicule those individuals that communicate non-verbally or enjoy listening to music, that would be hypocritical of me, I am merely making observation and hopefully make it humorous. OK, back to the cell phone babies…now I have had the pleasure of working with computers back to Windows 3.1, and I insisted my first computer have a modem so that I could call my friend (who was and still is much more advanced than me in computer wherewithal). So without any ISP I was on my way to peer-to-peer modem dial-up connectivity. Granted back then (early ’92-ish to be specific) computer-to-computer communication was limited, very limited, and I never really got into BBSs because they were like fraternities, you had to know the admin, have something to offer in return, just be granted access to their bulletin boards. Then came the World Wide Web and newsgroups, easily interfaced by using this program called an internet browser: Netscape. Then college = “high speed” internet connection, Pine e-mail, and, wait for it...wait for it, Windows 95! (what a revolution). Pine e-mail was a very basic DOS and Unix based application that allowed users to read messages. Well, the program, as far as I can remember, made you log in each time you wanted to read new message…well, I probably checked that e-mail account about 18 times a minute while in my dorm room first year. That deep blue background would laminate the dark room in a wave of blue colored tinted bliss…until I realized I never had any new mail. About 6% (arbitrary #) of the population used e-mail in ’95 (I found that 29% of households in ’95 accessed the internet, so I’m sort of close). And today? Well, let just say if our University e-mail system goes down for about 5 minutes we’ve got the entire academic, medical, and administrative community calling us for ETAs and how dare we ruin their lives by causing the servers to crash like we did it on purpose. Which brings me back to my observation which I will begin with an anecdote of one such user…

So this woman calls all panicky about not being able to send out e-mails for this important blah, blah, blah. So I tell her that the e-mail servers are acting slow and message sent out may take some time to reach their destinations. And she’s all like, “But I’m just trying send them down the all and around the corner.” As if your distance from the recipient is in direct relation to the time it takes to receive of the e-mail by said recipient. For the uninitiated, its not exactly. Yes, to some degree, but in this case, no. The point being…the recipient is down the hall and around the corner. Its not like she even had to pick up the phone! Just stand up, take 22 steps and see the person – IN PERSON. Alright, another thing you should know about me…I have some weird phobia about calling people on the phone, not talking to people on the phone, just calling. Not to this degree: Phone Phobia, but more like this: “Cold Call Phobia”, so I prefer to talk to people in person…or better yet, by e-mail. But if e-mail is down or unavailable…I prefer to go to the person/store than call. Don’t ask, I don’t know why. I’m sure my friend just think I don’t like them when I never call but that’s not the case. Place that in today’s ultra-cell phone/electronic society and that makes me antiquated. So that should give you some idea where this observation is coming from…but back to the topic at hand, which I have no idea what it is anymore…thanks for playing along.

Oh, right, non-personal communication. IM, text-messaging, E-mail, chat rooms, myspace…blogs (oh the irony) and other non-verbal communication are creating a whole new level of dangers that our younger generation faces with the added accessibility and connectivity to the larger world. Not to mention the distractions when driving, in classes, or walking alone…so what are we to do to protect society from falling into communication overload, attention deficit, and over exposure? That is a tough question to answer but it is certain that technology and teens (and younger) will always be one step ahead of regulation (see file sharing). Cell phones certain have their benefits: protection when walking alone (I know, I’m contradicting myself, but it can act as a deterrent and distraction from your surrounding), calling for emergencies or if lost, etc…we all know what they can do and how they have revolutionized our lives. Children of today will take it for granted and we will be the old geezers talking about the days before cell phones, phone tag, non-caller ID, rotary phones, and quarter pay phones…and actually remember people phone numbers by heart. And I am sure there are endless uses for cell phones that I am completely unaware of, but what will happen when we get to a point where we are talking to people by cell-phone, or atom-phone, or implant-a-phone, to a person right next to us. Or when we don’t recognized our own children when we run into them that one day we just so happen to be in our house at the same time.

On an unrelated note, I recently got a Bluetooth hands-free headset for my cell phone and it totally kicks ass. Now I can blog, chat, e-mail, drive, look pompous, talk on my cell phone, talk to other people, talk to myself without looking crazy, all with this fashionable earpiece dangling from one ear. I highly recommend them. Until tomorrow…unless I procrastinate some more.