Have you ever heard your parents say, “Back in my day, life was so much more difficult. Kids these days are so spoiled”? You would be surprised to know that they were the spoiled hipsters of yesteryear. As long as there have been Homo sapiens, there has been a generation gap and elders frowning upon it. One can almost imagine a geriatric Neanderthal rolling his eyes as his prodigy used the wheel or even before that, a Homo erectus grandfather looking suspiciously at his children living the easy life by using a fire to cook, leaving the good old days of raw meat dinners. From the complaints of Socrates turning young men against the establishment, to the small but vocal groups of Boomers on social media, there have been many examples of elderly backlash to changing times. One of the first documented episodes of such outrage goes back to Ancient Greece, from the 5th Century BCE onwards. During this time, a population boom and plentiful sustenance inspired philosophers and thinkers to question the world around them. In fact there is a saying, “All that I know is that I know nothing.” The young Athenians were educated to question everything, and this stung the established order. The noblemen condemned this wave of change and even succeeded in poisoning the leader of a major group, whom we know as Socrates, in 399 BCE. But the die was cast, and his doctrine spread under the likes of Aristotle and Alexander the Great. Despite the cry of the previous generations, change was inevitable. During the Industrial Revolution, from around 1800-1915, technology started ramping up, and new discoveries began to replace the established order. The younger generation of this period shook the world with the printing press and steam engines, as well as telegraphs. Gone were the days of horse-drawn carriages, messenger pigeons, and quill pens. As an example of such geriatric backlash, the famous Luddites smashed machines in textile plants all across southern England, but the resistance was quelled by 1815, and the rest was history. Fast-forwarding a few decades, we come to the tie-dye halcyon that was the 1960s. Their parents, who had been the brave heroes of World War II and the Korean War, with Victorian values and tough-knuckles education, had difficulty accepting what came after. Riding high on the Eisenhower economic boom, they had only one such musing: “Out with the old, in with the new.” Long hair, neon shirts, and peace signs became rife, as did the protests about war. Coming to modern times, it’s ironic that those same hippies that had run riot in the ‘60s were to become, you guessed it, just like their parents. With the rise of phones, game consoles, and computers, those very people who had once been at the forefront of change, condemned the newer generations, and all of their technology. At the risk of simplifying too much, is my generation’s addiction to social media, digital content, and video games and our iPhones, any different from our parents’ vices of television, VCRs, and Walkmans? I will leave you with a sobering thought: when we become our parents what will our generation be outraged about? It is hard to imagine, isn’t it? Perhaps this forthcoming generation will have their own addictions, as the VR, cybernetic implants, and artificial intelligence take over reality. Perhaps there will come a time when I, too, will say, “Back in my day…”
technology
Talk, a poem by Dylan Li, 5
Dylan Li, 5Yorba Linda, CA Talk Dylan Li, 5 I like to talk, talk, talk… I talk to an apple No answer I talk to mommy and daddy Sometimes mommy is working daddy is sleeping Sometimes daddy is working mommy is sleeping So I talk to Alexa She always answers But sometimes power is off I really want to talk to my friends face to face
Phone Addiction is Strengthening the Human Brain
Note: this entire blog is satire and should not be taken seriously. A shocking study shows that after people look at their phones, two things happen that go against anything anyone will ever tell you about phone addiction. First, your brain gets bigger as it retains more information in various forms of media: video, audio, text, image, etc. Second, your eyes are strengthened by the UV light coming from the screen as they form an immune system (of a sort) against it; it grows stronger by being exposed to UV light intensively and for long periods of time. The effects of these changes are already apparent. John Smith, a current student at Tech High School, said, “Miracles have been working on me ever since I got a phone. After looking at it on a daily basis for just one month, I was somehow able to retain information during lectures that I would normally daydream through and the glare of the sun that always bothered me on my walk home is now no more to me than a tiny speck of light in the distance. It is a win-win situation!” But, the goodness doesn’t stop there. Scientists are developing new phones that incorporate smell and texture as media options, enabling the human brain to grow unlike ever before, and that also uses rougher “training” lights to truly achieve the coveted ability of “night vision” and possibly even X-Ray vision. Scientist Gina Wright says, “We are excited at the prospect of a phone that would make addiction a good thing; a thing that could grant us superhuman abilities.” She is currently working to create a new phone company, Superphone, that will supposedly be “the tech of the generation.” But even a regular phone works; just be sure to stare at it every day! As important as they may be, phones aren’t the only ones in this business. Laptops and desktops can grant superhuman powers at an even faster rate, mostly due to the volume of “rough” light and media taken in at once. However, even though these devices empower you at a faster rate, they aren’t as commonly stared at as phones, thus trading speed for time. Even though eye and brain improvement and expansion are the main aspects that are being focused on right now, technology addiction can also cause physical changes. On a phone, since most scrolling and texting is done with your thumbs, they will also grow bigger and stronger. The effects of a tablet are similar. However, for laptops or desktops, the effects are different. Instead of having your thumb grow, all your fingers grow, but each at a slower rate. This is good if you often have to do things that require multiple fingers at once, but if you have trouble with something like opening a can, which is mostly a one-fingered job, it is better if you stick with a phone or tablet. You can also get devices that focus on just one aspect. For example, a television set would focus on improving and expanding the eyes, while a CD player would focus more on expanding the brain. Isn’t it exciting to think that, with only the help of everyday objects, Earth could be inhabited by superheroes? Maybe one day, our brains will be so advanced we could obtain the skill of telekinesis, and your eyes would be so durable they wouldn’t be burned when looking directly at the sun. I’d like to leave you with this final thought: we can only dream of these things because scientists found the good in something we previously thought bad. Perhaps if you dig down deeper into something, you might uncover astonishing and world-changing secrets!
