We have all come to accept, for the most part, that change continues to happen at a more rapid rate all the time. You may not think of it in those terms, but we acknowledge it in both obvious and subtle ways. It's a by-product of the tech age and I feel it's a matter worthy of some reflection because I know it's changing ME.
After all, centuries ago (to take a big step back) there were significant stretches where a son could expect to live in a world nearly identical to that of his father--or his grandfather--and perhaps even more generations than that. Certainly there were moments where developments jumped people forward and changed the shape of daily life or altered the landscape in some fashion, but those were the exceptions rather than the rule, at least from a supposedly enlightened 21st century perspective.
Those transformations happened faster and faster in more recent years, particularly as eras like the Industrial Age and Space Age ramped up that speed. The last several full generations have each lived in a setting that was unlike the previous one in a number of ways. Expressed in the pop culture sensibility of the late 20th century, that's part of the "generation gap," or as Will Smith put it while he was still The Fresh Prince, "Parents Just Don't Understand."
A good bit of that is tied to how we communicate--not just the language of the times but also the very method of contact (perhaps the old Marshall McLuhan line is more accurate now than ever: "The medium is the message"). Flashing back to the model of previous centuries, you have the printing press come along, and refinements to that process, sure, and that's the headliner for a long time. But once you get deep into the 19th century, one development begets another and within 150 years, you've taken the telegraph and telephone through enough steps (via radio-TV-PC, etc.) to where we now really have more devices and faster ways of communicating than we have valid things to say!
My ultimate point is this--today there's not exactly a generation gap in the same way we may have had in our youth with our parents or that they undoubtedly did with their parents. Nope--now we can have the equivalent of that same gap IN OUR OWN LIVES. What convenience!
What am I talking about? In a nutshell, I am not entirely sure what I share in common with the me of even FIVE years ago. Obviously we're the same person with the same background and basic character, but follow me for a moment...the 2006 me did not have an iPod nor iPhone, was not familiar with Twitter and Facebook or well-versed in YouTube, did not own the car I currently drive nor hold the job I currently work...plus at the start of that year I was not even living in this house (and my family was split in two cities while making the transition). The iPad simply did not exist, and I'm reasonably certain I knew nothing of the Kindle or the Nook, if they existed.
Now I wonder what I did with anything resembling spare time. Watched TV and read books, perhaps surfed the web and checked e-mail, I suppose (how old-fashioned, me of 2006!). These days I can spend seemingly endless hours on my iPhone, jauntily bouncing from app to app, catching up with countless others on Facebook (mostly old friends I thought I had "lost" until I "found" them again in cyberspace) or on Twitter (mostly famous folks I've never even met in real life, whatever that is anymore). Perhaps instead I'm playing games that test my mind, like trying Words with Friends or taking Sporcle quizzes, or ones that instead test my threshold for addiction, like Angry Birds or SkyBurger (or to be frank, many, many others as well). I thrill at the "magic" that is my iPod, holding more than 8000 songs--and always growing, capturing a full CD collection built over years and putting it in my pocket. The latest device addiction is my Kindle. Yes, they got me too. I have a life-long love affair with books, it's true. But I've been cheating with a Kindle, and loving every minute of it. Surely it won't be as satisfying, I thought. Wrong, I was (talking like Yoda, I am).
So all my "free" time has transformed into a cavalcade of wondrous devices that do miraculous things in my eyes--gadgets that do the stuff I spent years saying, "Wouldn't it be great if we just had something that ____?" Well, we've got them now. And I'm hooked. But not the me of just five years ago--no, that Luddite is blissfully unaware of the transformative power those beauties will have on him in such a short time. That simpleton...and I say all this knowing that when the day comes that I take the step to iPad user, I will likely have the same opinion of present-day me.
No, it's not just on the home front, either. I've had my current job for four years now. When I joined, I was to have responsibilities centering on the website and video streaming for the Big South Conference. Those segments are still at the core of what I do, but you have to add in all those other things now: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, the blog, plus coming up with mobile solutions and reacting to new platforms or trying to anticipate next steps. The 2011 me has a job the 2006 me couldn't have properly conceived of back then. Strange but true--talk about following an Imperfect Compass!
So you see what I mean about change? This is not one generation to the next--this is not even really about one decade to the next--this is all within a five-year span of time that has seen alterations in technology and communications, easily obtainable by the average consumer, sufficient to turn large aspects of our lives into something new and different. Thus we are changing within ourselves...not a generation gap, but a Regeneration Gap--a term that would have seemed more aptly applied to Doctor Who than to me or you, but such are our times.
Perhaps five years from now as I reread this internally on the wireless communicating chip implanted in my brain, I'll think of how backwards I was in 2011 for thinking up such nonsense, right before I hop into the matter transporter that gets me across town instantaneously. Yeah, we always joke about what science fiction got wrong (where is my levitating car anyway--preferably one that folds into a briefcase), but consider for a moment what it got RIGHT. We've got people walking around with more computing power in their pocket, or hand, or purse, right now than existed in the entire world altogether when the Space Race began. No information is beyond reach, no experience beyond sharing (for better or for worse). What a SHORT strange trip it's been.
My Choice Song for the Post: "Time" - Pink Floyd
(really, using any version of "The Times They Are A-Changing" seemed both too obvious and heavy-handed, and the Dead reference closed the piece, but consider how "Time" puts its focus on the passage of time and spending time, that seemed appropriate...plus, the song is solid)
My iPod's Choice via Shuffle: "Holding On" - Yes
(looks like the iPod also felt a classic rock vibe, which is good--but don't confuse this tune from the later-day Union album with the similarly-titled "Hold On" from 90125, which is simply one of my favorite songs and albums)
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