Consumeration:
Are we gaining, or losing?
Technology continues to advance: smaller phones, faster cars, ever improving computers. But what is it that comes along with this progress? We buy more, we throw away more, we consume much more now than ever.
At what cost?
This generation is growing up in the heels of the largest American generation, the baby boomers. They have been targeted far more than ever before to buy products, services, and new technology. What are the effects on the younger generation?
WE want those products. WE want those services. WE want that technology.
We want what we see, and we want it now. We buy up more products than we can afford some times, often getting money from our parents or from possibly other not so legal forms. Where does that money go? Straight to the businesses that are telling us that we must have the next new thing.
Everyone must have a DVD player, so everyone got one.
Everyone must have a camera phone, so (almost) everyone is getting one.
Everyone must have a computer, so (nearly) everyone has one.
There are always exceptions, there must be a nearly or almost there to show that not everyone has a camera phone and not everyone has a computer. It’s easy to see why phones, computers, and even to an extent why DVD players could be useful, but do the positives out weight the negatives.
I’m sure everyone would quickly answer “Yes”, because that’s what we’ve been told.
But think for a moment, do they really? Is it really better to have something to stare at for three hours while you sit on your ass and do nothing? Is it better to spend hours in front of a computer screen instead of going out and being active? Is it better to be contacted at any point at any time, even if you’re in a movie, having dinner, going to the bathroom, in the shower, driving, flying, or even (god forbid) having sex?
Even if the positives do out weight the negatives, it’s a very close comparison. There may only be one or two positives that out number the negatives, and who decides which positives or negatives are more important?
American big business is making us hungry for new products, new music, new everything. What is there that makes us hungry for what we have?
Was there some technology that you had that you truly enjoyed? Perhaps a game, or maybe a certain tool that was very useful and got the job done and you were very efficient at it. Then a year or two later there was a new game, or a new tool that “worked better” than the last one. It may have worked better, but you weren’t as good as it as the last one, but still you accepted the newer one because it was just that. New.
New doesn’t always mean “good”, but that is what is drilled into us every time we turn on the television, radio, or go to almost any store.
It’s true that standing still, completely still, and not accepting change is not a good thing.
But having only change, and not having any constant at all in your life, then how do you know what you are, how do you know who you are?
I know who I am, because I haven’t changed all that much for the past six years, if not longer. However, it wasn’t until recently that I was shown what I’m not, and what I truly wanted to be.
I am Jeffrey Dorney.
I prefer my old computer games to my new ones.
I prefer my old Windows version.
I prefer my current girl friend: the person whom I love and trust more than anyone else, Sarah.
I know who I am and what I want from life, and what I can live without.
Do you?