Connected and Entertained but Ignorant and Lame

In an age of Twitter and texting and iPods and facebook and Youtube, the world is connected and entertained like never before. Thankfully, the current array of technological devices has ensured that the individual need never be bored or lonely again. Music, videos, pictures, games, personalized text—they’re now at your fingertips everywhere! Just take your pick. Or take a step back and consider that it might be wise to be a little wary of the technological onslaught that has revolutionized life in the last fifteen years.

So who would question the advancements in technology that have made communication so much easier and entertainment so much more accessible than ever before?—probably a nostalgic old-timer looking at young whipper-snappers’ new-fangled gadgets through his reading glasses and lamenting the lost days when life was simple.

I’m twenty-three.

Several weeks ago I observed a seventeen-year-old pass 30 minutes peering into his iPhone and giggling intermittently. I took a closer look. Using the touch screen, he was toppling a rubbery stick-figure down flights of stairs and racking up points for damages as it glanced off uneven surfaces and finally came to rest in a crumpled heap. This riveting new application for iPhone certainly succeeded as a source of amusement, but I couldn’t help wondering if there might be better ways to spend a half hour.

Obviously there is nothing wrong with social networking and accessing various forms of entertainment via mobile devices. But it is troubling to consider the habits that today’s children, teens, and adults are developing as they spend a staggering amount of time engrossed in new technology. The nature of high tech entertainment and communication is an overwhelming barrage on the senses that programs our nervous systems to expect vivid stimulation every second. The result is an inability to sit still, be quiet, look, listen, concentrate—in short appreciate the things that deserve our attention. Conditioned to constantly see, hear, and feel the gimmicks of the newest technologies, people are missing out on important sources of enrichment. Consequently, high-tech communication and entertainment contribute to stunted individual development.

Why is it that people barely read books anymore? Books have always been and will continue to be one of the best resources for developing the mind with vocabulary, analytical skills, and creative power. Yet they collect dust on the shelves of this generation because sitting quietly and concentrating on a printed page is dull when the iPhone touch screen flashes scores of color tabs and chimes the arrival of a new text. So we trade PlatoPlato, Augustine, Bacon, and ShakespeareShakespeare, the aggregate of the world’s best minds recorded on paper, for the cheap eye-catchers of the entertainment industry. Had we turned back a book’s cover, might the words of a past great thinker have lit a fire that would have forged us into our own philosophers, scientists, or playwrights—or at least made our lives slightly more informed?

Why is it that the world seems so impersonal today? Watch college students walk from one class to the next, observe professionals commute to work on the bus or subway, or study someone at the grocery store check-out. They’re all busy—busy being entertained. iPods and cell phones have taken precedence over people. The cashier who serves us isn’t as important as the call we’re taking, and the person next to us on the bus couldn’t be as interesting as the text messages we receive, and a stroll through the vibrant college campus as classes change is a real bore without a charged iPod. Could we be missing something?

What about the imagination? The same technological onslaught that distracts us from books and people also conditions today’s children, teens, and adults to not use their imaginations. Rather than tapping into our own creative faculties to craft the plot of a great novel, invent the melody of a stirring song, or dream of who we want to be and how we’re going to do it, we watch strings of Youtube videos and wait for the newest iPhone application to come out. Children of years past learned to entertain themselves by escaping into thrilling worlds of their imaginations while modern youngsters learn to depend on technology to dispel their boredom. Which children are more likely to become the members of society who come up with creative solutions to problems or invent ingenious products—those who can stare glassy-eyed into a screen while punching a controller or those who can close their eyes and enter a wonderland of their making? Don’t be fooled. The most amazing high-tech gadget is just a shadow of the tool each of us has inside our heads.

Finally, the ills of the modern technological bombardment manifest themselves in a generation that doesn’t appreciate the natural world. The striking splendor, raw power, and fascinating mystery of earth shouldn’t need an argument, but apparently it does in 2009. Oblivious to nature’s wealth, people don’t leave their wired living rooms for a simple walk in the woods much less an outdoor adventure. And those who are inconvenienced by a slightly rural setting miss its charms because they’re too busy worrying whether the tawny ridge blooming with autumn colors has left them enough reception to receive the profound text message that reads lol =). It all circles back to our inability to sit still, be quiet, look, listen, concentrate—appreciate those things that have real value. The essence of the natural world defies summation in mortal words. The fact that it eludes human comprehension while continuing to both threaten and delight the human being should somehow resonate in our core. Yet today’s average Joe is content to remain in city grids, trading a mountain peak for a sky-scraper’s metal summit and the stars’ clean glow for the luminance of electronic buttons. It makes me wonder--shouldn’t that which is created by God compel more than that by man?

Having rambled the rural woodlands of Pennsylvania as a child and pursued outdoor adventures throughout the U.S and abroad, I write from my personal love of the outdoors. As a college English major and avid reader, I write as a lover of literature. Frequently finding myself lost in the pleasant web of daydreamed aspirations, I write as a believer in the possibilities of the imagination. Clearly, I’m biased toward my personal interests and experiences. People are certainly different in their tastes and inclinations, but I still contend that there is something about nature, the written record of profound ideas, and the potential of the human mind that should compel the common man. Such things are priceless resources for individual development and satisfaction, but this generation trades them for the superficial flash and immediacy of technological toys.

The modern world is happy to waste time and neglect value in exchange for passive entertainment. And it’s probably futile to rail against the inevitable change of a society of entertainment-hungry consumers in an increasingly technological world. Perhaps I’m an idealistic discontent who should go sit in the woods with a book and dream himself a better world….and I might just do that if it wasn’t true that high-tech communication and entertainment was also limiting personal achievement on top of individual development. Did you ever stop to ask yourself what child could have become a dazzling musician if he had been stroking his cello rather than watching rubbery stick-figures tumble down flights of steps? What others could have become compelling writers, brilliant artists, or professional athletes if they had been practicing their passions rather than wasting time on cell phones, iPods, and computers? We are well-entertained but not stimulated to grow and achieve.

Consider the booming film industry. Aided by high definition, surround sound systems, and the newest special effect techniques, Hollywood pumps out scores of movies that have people just frantic to drop $9. Why are they so popular? Do movies make people feel better about themselves in some way, or do they provide pleasant delusion that temporarily transports us away from the fact that our real lives aren’t interesting or exciting enough to stand on their own? Notice that today’s men would rather pop in an action flick and ogle Megan FoxMegan Fox than actually pursue a real-life beautiful girl and take her on an adventure of their own. Observe that rather than actually doing something exciting or daring or heroic with their own lives, people are content to slouch on the couch and watch Daniel CraigDaniel Craig simulate it on screen. We depend on movies and reality TV shows to add the flair that is missing from our lives, and as a result we become sedentary receptacles rather than active human beings. Perhaps this claim seems exaggerated.

Freshman year in college introduced me to the computer game World of Warcraft. I quickly learned of its new features through the excited jabber of several engineering students. The game’s nearly endless levels allowed users to customize characters, wander a maze of virtual worlds, combat a host of formidable foes, and organize collective raids with other players from all over the globe—pretty impressive, I’ll admit—but I never would have imagined the game’s effect on my fellow freshmen. Lured by the fake thrills of World of Warcraft, three of my hall mates literally checked-out of real life, playing all night and sleeping all day, sheepishly admitting at the semester’s end that they had logged solid weeks of play-time. They were undoubtedly well-entertained, but none of them were particularly proud of their habits. Why is it that gamers don’t make an announcement through a megaphone on the college quad the moment they eclipse level 67? Why don’t all the girls flock to the champions of World of Warcraft? It’s because a true hero doesn’t slay dragons and rescue beauties with a mouse and keyboard. He makes a mark with real actions in the real world. I’m not saying that every person needs to be a modern-day William Wallace to live well. It just seems that many people who have a lot of potential are pretty lame. Don’t underestimate the power of modern technologies to draw us away from living life to the fullest.

High-tech communication and entertainment should be exposed as a detractor of individual development and personal achievement, but it also merits criticism because a lot of it is just plain pathetic. Today we have adults in their 40s who change their facebook status every half hour. What about the extremely mature facets of the same social network that offer its members the “poke” option and “gift” features………………………………………………………………really? It seems to me that past generations of people grew out of their plastic trucks and stuffed animals after the childhood years, yet today’s high school students, college students, and young adults are still clinging to their high tech toys with the persistence of toddlers.

Obviously, I wouldn’t argue to do away with high-tech forms of communication and entertainment. The point is we need to think carefully about how we spend our time, what is valuable, what we want to do, and who we want to become. The most remarkable members of society didn’t distinguish themselves by indulging in passive entertainment. They planned, prepared, dreamed, and dared to break the mold that everyone else was happy to fit into. Almost everyone wants to leave a trail on this earth that’s dotted with excitement and adventure and profundity and creativity, but too many people aren’t because they get subconsciously sucked into the idea that technological thrills are enough just because they’re easy and immediate. Guess what—Apple doesn’t build for the individual’s future—it spews a fancy stream of colored plastic and smart microchips that yields a nice net profit and often undermines its consumers’ quality of life. Oblivious to its own potential, this generation is selling itself short as it becomes more uneducated, impersonal, oblivious, unimaginative, underachieving, and lame. Could high tech toys be part of the problem?