Clarifying My Place in a Highly Technologically Advanced World

My most recent blog entry prior to this one was all about how I feel sometimes out of place, or rather out of date, when faced with the impressive technological advancements that are regularly being introduced into the public market, and into the lives of many Americans. 
        While I do not subscribe to this sense of having to get the newest, latest and greatest big thing to come out, I nonetheless do enjoy many facets of modern technology. I did not want to come across as some computerphobe, or that I somehow live in the past, and have not embraced the future. In fact, this is far from being the case. I rarely buy a newspaper or magazine these days, because you can pretty much guarantee that much of that type of news and other stuff are readily available online. Yes, I get most of my news online these days, and also have gotten into the habit of perusing through some blogs as well. I enjoy sports, yet most of the time, I follow the headlines and scores online, and check the standings, and so on and so forth, instead of religiously watching the games or listening to sports talk on the radio every day or week. For that matter, I have most of that other stuff that people have, including an email address (several, in fact), a Facebook account, an Ebay account, and have made some purchases through Amazon and Kobo. I have downloaded movies and music online, and regularly watch some things on Youtube. Plus, of course, there’s this blog of mine that you are reading right now. 
        So, yes, I am a modern man, and have adapted to these technological realities of the present age. 
        Yet, I have been on this earth long enough to have seen that when you add something, you lose something. It might not be immediately apparent, and in fact, it might take a great deal of time for you to understand, much less acknowledge, that what is missing is, in fact, an actual loss. 
        Let me illustrate this point with an example: in modern America, we have a strong network of highways and such, and much of these are lined with industry and warehouses and strip malls, and other places of commercial use.  This was a goal that would have seemed desirable in the entrepreneurial spirit of the past, and some do indeed enjoy it now. However, many people have bgun to understand that there was a price to all of this, that we lost something. We lost many of our open spaces, and that is not a minor loss. Also, with these highways and strip malls, we began to see the rise of superstores, like Kmart and Sears at first, and later, places that did it even better, like Walmart and Target and Home Depot and Lowe’s. But in the process, we happened to lose the American downtown, often referred to as Main Street, USA. There were advantages to having a rich downtown, particularly with the sense of community, and the little, everyday social interactions that people used to have. Given that specialty superstores allow you the convenience of going in, getting what you want, and going out, easy and efficiently, and with a minimum of human interaction or meaningful conversation, and that the internet allows us to indulge in things in an even more exclusively private manner than that, our collective social skills have fallen out of whack. No wonder we are so divided and high strung these days. We just cannot find the time or patience to deal with people not in our inner circles, and that never used to be the case before. The loss of everyday human interaction on a small-scale, local level was indeed of tremendous value, and we are, collectively, the worse of in the absence of this. Perhaps we are only beginning to understand this, but likely, we will understand it more and more over time. 
        So, while it may have been puzzling to some readers, why I would have added places like Walmart and McDonald’s and such commercial places of business, to reflections on modern technology, it is because, the way I see it, they are linked, and cannot be separated. These places, like our modern technological conveniences, are designed to make our lives, and options, more convenient. But there are complications in each case, and these are not minor. In fact, they just might be affecting our lives adversely, contributing to a lesser quality of life. Computers and super stores may be making us less sociable. Super stores like Walmart tend to eliminate local businesses, and also have an adverse effect on our social interactions. Superstores and food chains offer cheap comforts, but they do so by choking off their smaller competitors, and they also have a destructive presence globally. 
        Yes, undeniably, technology has some great assets to offer. But there are side effects that make you wonder whether technology is a cure to many of our ills, a pacebo that allows us the escapism that we have come to desire so much that it feels like it is a need, or if all this high end technology is, in fact, perhaps a major contributing factor to the illness so readily apparent in our modern-day society. 
        What is has done is made this society appear ever more complicated, and also quite a bit more diverse. Just about everyone has a computer, or access to one. We do our work on them, we perhaps punch in on them. We take care of our personal business on them, check our various accounts, and so on. We keep our calendars and important appointments on them. All the details of our life. Those who come form another culture, or are interested in other cultures, can now better keep in contact with that culture. It allows us to indulge in our own unique, peculiar interests. There are advantages, undeniably. But there are aspects that perhaps are not, that in fact, muddy the previously clear waters. 
Everything is so much more complicated, so much more involved and detailed, than it used to be. Funny, but I think that older generations used to feel that way about the times back when I was a kind in the eighties. Kids today will likely be expressing those same sentiments some decades in the future, while guys like me may be setting themselves up to look like the old, doddering fools that are forever hopelessly far behind.  These things seem to run cyclically, after all. 
        But that said, it really does seem like things are happening at a very fast rate. Much of history seems to be speeding up as we go along. The rise and fall of the American Empire, a subject that is often spoken of and debated, seems to have happened, or to be happening, as a modern day equivalent to the rise and fall of Rome, although the events that led to both the rise and fall of the empire here in America occurred at a much quicker pace. Much like the technological advances that seem to come incredible fast, events seem to come very fast these days, as well. These days, history in general seems to move fast. 
        Still, the only permanent thing in this world would be change. Things always change. That is the way things have always been, and always will be. And it is also as it should be. As such, I try my best to embrace it. 
        So, while I may joke about being technologically impaired, I am, in fact, more addicted to some aspects of our modern society and technology as the next guy. Plus, the tablet will probably bring me one or two steps closer towards catching up with the remaining deficiencies as far as modern consumer technology is concerned. I’m not there, yet. But I am getting there, albeit at a slower pace than the rapid clip of change in our world today. That’s my older upbringing talking now.