Talkin' bout my generation...

Earlier today, I had a short conversation with my daughter's friend... He was wondering where she was, as he had texted her, and she didn't reply, immediately. Of course, my daughter was getting ready to catch the school bus, and was already late since she had difficulty lifting herself from the mattress. Not to mention, she had to squeeze in several minutes worth of trying on every article of clothing she owns, and doing a quick scroll of her Facebook page, before leaving the front door to face the world.

I would roll my eyes at this, but I realize, I do it too...

Sometimes I have to drag my behind out of bed in the middle of the night to visit the commode, and I check the time on my phone... my hand subconsciously flips the screen across and opens Facebook... it's become automatic... my brain has rewired itself. Most of the time, there's nothing there of importance, so I can drift off back to sleep. However, I have had a few instances where I've left comments via my phone. At four in the morning, auto correct is a fantastic thing.

It's amazing how tethered we have become to technology. Yes, I agree that it is a wonderful tool ... we can reach out to friends and family all over the world, get pertinent news in a heartbeat, find valuable information with the click of a mouse, and express our opinions to the world via blogs :)

However ... there is a fine line between using a tool and being one. And, I see this as I watch my children and their friends. They have never known a day without some kind of advanced technology. For mine, ages 9 through 14, there have always been cellphones, e-mail, the world wide web, and eBay. In my house, currently, I count four computers, five cell phones, an X-box, a Wii, three PSP's and three televisions. I even have GPS in my car, in case I get lost in downtown Roanoke.

Don't get me wrong, I like technology as much as the next guy, but when is it too much? I think I made that realization this morning, speaking with my daughter's friend. He mentioned the whole reason (or, at least this is what I gather) that he had his phone was to keep in touch with friends and family outside of the U.S. Alright, I can buy that. I have an aunt who lives in Holland, and it certainly makes things much easier by communicating via Facebook. What bothered me was that I got the gist from him, that without technology he would be unable to ever see these people again! Eh?

So, being who I am, I decided to make some smart-ass remarks about how my friends and I used to communicate through things called "Letters" ... you know... we would scribble on pieces of paper, stuff them into an envelope, and with the appropriate postage, they would eventually reach the recipient.... I may as well have told him we communicated with smoke signals.

Being a military brat, we moved a great deal... often across oceans and countries. It wasn't unusual for a friend to suddenly announce that they were being stationed somewhere on the other side of the globe. Yes, saying "goodbye" to a dear friend was difficult, but once you had an address, you were golden. I remember coming home from school, and being so excited to see a letter sitting on the dining room table with my name on it. Oftentimes... remember, this was the late 80's, early 90's ... it would be a special treat, and the stationary would be super-awesome Lisa Frank stuff. And, each letter of the name and address would be in a different color... you know, from the giant pen with sixteen ink cartridges in it (you know you had one... and you tried to press all the buttons at once) ... The crowning glory? The stamp. You couldn't send such fine mail with a Columbus stamp! What?! No... that's like putting a dingy patch on a pair of designer jeans. Of course, you know that's all your mom had in her purse.... yep... better hop on the ten-speed and get to the post office... The stamp would be like your ringtone. Is it boring and generic? Did it come with the phone? Or did you fine tune that Lady Gaga song on Myxer? ...dats right...

Once I moved to Maine when dad retired, I felt proud to walk into that post office, and hand my letters to the lady behind the counter, "This one's going to Hawaii, and this one goes to Germany, and this one to Colorado." I felt like a world-class citizen. Yeah, baby, I've got connections.

Now, I examine my facebook page, and see that I've conversed with people on almost every continent... the penguins from Antarctica have yet to reply. The thing is, I'm no different than everyone else. Go ahead... look. You'll see what I'm talking about. I'm sure, somewhere in your favorite groups, or on Angry Birds, or some page you "liked", you have spoken with someone who is on the other side of the planet, or across an ocean... Doesn't that blow your mind? It should.

But, my children's generation just doesn't see it that way... they flip out when they don't get an immediate text back... They think their girlfriend is cheating by talking to some dude 3,000 miles away about a common interest or by "liking" the same Internet meme. Their world ends when someone "unfriends" them.

Wow. Just... wow.

I want everyone to try a little experiment. Turn off the computers, cell phones, tablets, etc. for one hour.  Just one. During that hour, with a pen and paper (if you don't know what these things are, simply ask someone over the age of 20) make tally marks of each time you even think about checking facebook, or watching a movie, or looking something up on Wikipedia, and the like.

I did it earlier, today. I had 27 marks on my page. Twenty-seven. Almost thirty times, I reached into my pocket for my phone to pull something up on the Internet... for example, I wanted to bake some bread with my spare time, but couldn't find the recipe. Stuff like that. I ended up digging through my filing cabinet for a small book of recipes, where I also came across a photograph of my mother when she was 14.  Amazing how things work... I just may give it a try again, tomorrow.

Let me know how many tally-marks you get, oh, best beloved :)