Progress Exponentially?

In this dawning age of internet and advanced technology, one can only wonder how much more "progress" can we make. While looking through the NYTimes website today after a long day of homework and assignments, I stumbled upon an article about what people would do for $5.

It is undeniable and most certainly inevitable that we are all dependent on the internet. Our dependence began with the ease of sharing and obtaining information. The internet then initiated its attack into our daily lives changing everything that possessed nostalgic values. IT infected our childhood with online computer games, gameboys, mp4s, etc. I am fortunate to be able to remember my childhood being an adventurous girl climbing hills, playing with marbles, drawing outlines for hopscotch on the pavements, riding bicycles down the road to buy pastries from a stall by the sidewalk. IT grew bigger and stronger and dropped the atomic bomb on our social life. As we all know, social networking came about with the infamous Facebook, MySpace, Friendster,etc. changing how we communicate with people. Now it goes further; taking over our free time. Bored? Have free time? Take care of your restaurant on Restaurant City or speak with a random stranger anonymously on Omegle, tend to the needs of your virtual pet on Pet Society, answer random questions about yourself on Formspring or tell the world what you would do to earn $5. (Here's a linkhttp://www.fiverr.com/)

Have you ever wondered if there would ever come a generation where everyone's childhood comprised of playing Wii with friends they made through and communicate solely through Facebook. They would not know what a book is or know how to play those childhood games your friends and you use to play in the playground. They would not learn the nursery rhymes we learnt as little kids because they grew up in the age of technology. It is happening right at this moment.

Have you ever seen a 5 year old boy too preoccupied with his super sophisticated portable PS to communicate with his parents at the dinner table at a restaurant? I have always wondered what these parents think about allowing their child grow up being ignorant of other joys in life removing the element of exploration a normal child should experience. Do these parents see it as providing what they could not have as children to their child?

As scary and daunting as it seems, I am afraid IT is more than just some infectious disease, it is more than just a STD, it is more than just that Trojan Horse virus that never goes away. I wonder how many more analogies I can make up to even attempt to describe the situation because it is scary to think that IT could be like air or love; we need it to survive, it comes in a variety of form, it is everywhere, but I guess one difference would be that it is forvever growing and growing and we never know what the end product will be.

Update in life: Fall break ended and I got to visit Bahston (Boston). More pictures to come. Keep a look out at my picture of the day column.

"Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal." -Albert Einstein