I've been watching this show called "Super Eruption" (I believe that's what it is). In this show, it focuses on a massive storm, a hacker and a city wide black out. My concerns are neither on the massive storm or the the hacker, but it is on the city wide black out. The interpretation of this black out got me thinking. What would today's society and generation do without technology and electricity? In this show, it focuses on the people of this city going in a mad frenzy, trying to figure out how to survive and ready for this massive storm. But lets think back to the "old days" and how they survived without technology and electricity, and any warning of storms. Back before technology (or much of it) was ever invented, everyone had to fend for themselves. They made it seem quite easy to survive without electricity, etc. They never had to depend on any type of technology in order to live like we do now. Which made me think. If we ever had to go through a massive black out like this (which I have a feeling we may someday) what would we do? We've been too spoiled in today's society with everything we have and own now. With it taken away, we'd think we wouldn't be able to survive without it. Which kind of makes me mad a little bit, because the only way we know how to survive is, in fact, with technology. Lets think of our grandparents and great grandparents, what would they think of us? If they could do without, so could we. Right? What would they do in this situation? I guess the point of this thread is to discuss concerns, thoughts, opinions, etc, on today's society and how spoiled we are with all the technology we have.
The Sci-Fi channel has been showing that movie all day. I hate that movie so much. But yea, you do have a point. Thanks to the widespread availability to technology, people has easy access to all sorts of information. Yet, they seem to lack common sense. Two years ago I was staying with my step mom and two step-sisters when the power was knocked out for three days due to a heavy snow storm. They were freaking out because they didn't know what to do. "How will we get hot water? How am I gonna watch tv? How will we cook food?" Considering all three of them need help just to air up a flat tire on a car, it made me wonder if the power grid did down for an extended period of time how many people would die just because they don't know how to start a fire without a lighter? Just because people have access to the net and libraries doesn't mean they put it to use making themselves smarter.
It's always fun when there's a power cut because my family would usually light candles and we'd play a board game or something. Anyway, back to technology taking over the world. The thing that really annoys me is that most people are so absorbed in technology, of the latest trends, that they don't see that there's any way of contacting people or doing things. Such as people will text each other when they're sitting next to each other, or if a group of friends are socialising every one of them seems to be glued to their phone or a similar technology. When someone doesn't have a social networking site it's a disaster and means no one can get hold of you. What's wrong with letters or actually visiting people? As for survival in terms of cooking and whatnot, that's when camping skills come in handy. I think we're so used to technology, and it getting better and better, that we're taking it for granted and forgetting about other ways of doing things. Let's face it, we're lazy. It's rather sad.
Well, I have to be honest. I'm in my teens, and I seriously cannot go a day without my phone, radio, tv, consoles or computer. But, I don't *blame* it on me, I blame it on the society that we live in. I mean, everything we do now has some ties to technology. It really isn't our fault that we were grown up with these things ... :redface: Oh, and I love when the Electricity goes off. It is rare here, as storms are rare too, but I love sitting around the fire with the family and dog and toasting bread over the flames.
Today our society relies too much on technology to survive, I've read about huge solar storms from the sun that could knock out our technology for months at a time. This would be absolute chaos, what would we do if we had no access to our money, or no means of contacting help and support? We live in a generation where the Earth is filling to the brim with people, in cities and continents our size we couldn't survive without technology because there is simply too much demand to process...it is pretty scary though huh?
What concerns me about the increasing reliance on technology is the effect it is having on human relationships. People, particularly young people, seem to be much more comfortable "texting", "twittering" and relying on social sites like Facebook than they are actually being with other people. It's not hard to see why this is so. The kinds of interaction I mentioned are all "one way" - that is, you can say what you have to say and then turn it off and not listen to the response. OTOH, interpersonal interactions on a face-to-face basis are very different. They are continuous, dynamic and involve a great deal more tolerance on everyone's part. In short, they are harder, and require a much more varied skill set. Here in New York, we just made it a traffic violation to text while driving. On the face of it, the very idea that someone would focus on texting while driving a 2-ton vehicle is lunacy. But people do it. Why? Because this kind of interaction is addictive. It doesn't give us enough of what we have always gotten from traditional social interactions, but increasingly, we don't know how to do (or are uncomfortable with) traditional social interactions, so we try to compensate by more of the electronic variety. There's a part in "Inherit the Wind" where Drummond turns to the jury and says, "Progress has never been a bargain; you have to pay for it. I sometimes think there is man behind a counter who says, 'You may have a telephone, but you will lose privacy and the charm of distance'; 'Madame, you may vote, but you lose the right to hide behind a powderpuff or a petticoat'; 'Mister, you may conquer the air, but the birds will lose their wonder, and the clouds will smell of gasoline'." The new social media allow us to keep in contact with people we would never otherwise see. But when we use these tools as a replacement for, rather than an addition to, our normal social interactions, we lose something vital. So, if there was a huge solar storm that wiped it all out, it would be extremely difficult: the financial markets would be in chaos, we'd be forced to go back to burning wood in our stoves and fireplaces and relying on candles for light, and the only power we'd have is what we could harness from wind or solar. But at least maybe we'd go back to talking to one another.
