What to Expect of Technology and it's Impact On Our Lives
Ever since the Industrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries, we have been striving and awaiting new gadgets that would make life and transportation just a tad bit easier. In the film Back to The Future released in 1985, we were shown the high technology expectations of society reflected throughout the movie with the flying car, hover skateboards, and time machines. In the prime-time sitcom, The Jetsons aired in the 1960's and 80's, we were again showed the high expectations of the future technology as they had robots as part of society having all the same features as humans and flying cars being able to travel to and from space whenever one desired. Nearing the new millennium brought even higher expectations of inventions that would change the world. Eleven years into the new millennium, we may have not invented our flying cars but our technology has truly advanced highly affecting our lives. Not only can you surf the Internet in less than five seconds finding out information on vast subjects, you can also listen to music in a device smaller than your palm. Online retailers have expanded their business by sending online messages to frequent shoppers and showing their products online and having ability to be ordered at home instead of having to travel to the store. Technology has made our lives easier and faster and it will only advance in the future as our expectations increase and industries strive to invent the next “best thing”. We can expect great things of the future but we should also fear the future as we should expect an increase in kidnapping, attacks, and identity theft as all of our information is online and available to anyone on the Internet. This has eased predators access to contacting young children as they can pretend to be anyone behind a computer screen. Technology has helped maintain relationships as we can keep in touch by phone, text messaging, and online video chatting no matter how far apart you are. As much has this has kept us closer it has also created an increased socially awkward society. “When you take away the face-to-face contact in a relationship, the nature of the dynamic changes,” says Lenise Phillips in Living Through Technology. We should expect the youth today unable to conduct a business meeting or have a normal conversation because instead of talking in person, all of our conversations are conducted online or via telephone where we can be anyone we want and our personalities change extremely. Half the things we say online or in text messaging- we wouldn’t have the nerve to say in person.
2012 Apocalypse: What Should We Expect?
No matter where you go or what magazine you read- there are stories of the world ending on December 21, 2012. How did this all start you ask? As much ass Hollywood has hyped this up making many movies out of it but it actually came from the Long-Count Mayan Calendar, which ends on December 21, 2012. There are many different ways people say to expect the world to end such as hit by a meteor, Earth fall out of it's orbit, and even the story of another planet in our galaxy called Nibiru whose is said to make an appearance in the year 2012. Many people don't know what to expect and fear this day commonly called "Doomsday". Others argue that this is just another hoax and that no one has anything to worry about. There have been many other days where it is said that the world was supposed to end. You may have not heard of them as much as the 2012 one because Hollywood did not stress and exaggerate it's importance as much as they did for 2012. The world was supposed to end according to interpretations of Nostradamus on July and December of 1999, June of 2002, and October of 2005. These writings also provided evidence that the dead would rise from their graves in 2000, 2007, and year 7000. We are left to just wonder and guess what to expect. People's expectations of 2012 vary drastically and now all we can do is wait and expect the best.
The Economy
As well as today, we were also stuck in a recession in 1982 with President Ronald Regan. During the recession of 1982, Ronald Regan told America on a televison broadcast and said, "prosperity is right around the corner." People began to have hope and their expectations of our economy increased after these encouraging words. After almost a month of no change and the President's false hope, people became very disappointed and hopeless. Politicians began to advise people to deal with the situation they are in and to stop dreaming of a better time in the future. If people were going to make it through this recession, no one could lose all hope but they did have to lower their expectations of the economy. As we entered yet another recession in December of 2007, Novemeber of 2008 was Presidential elections. Many people made the choice of voting for Obama because they saw he would fix the recession and help our economy. America held these expectations of him as he was elected and were extremely disappointed when four years later, we are still in a recession. Obama has said several times that we cannot have a negative attitude of the economy never recovering because then our faith will just be crushed. Whenever the economy worsens, we begin to panic and we need someone to blame almost like a scapegoat. For example when the Black Death or the Bubonic Plague spread throughout Europe, people began to blame Jewish people because they needed the satisfaction of blaming someone, false or true- did not matter. Our "scapegoat" in this situation is the President. We start to blame "the man in charge" for the terrible economic situation as if he were the one that caused it. As all these complaints were thrown towards President Obama he came back saying, “I take my share of the blame for not explaining it more clearly to the American people... This problem is not going away.” As the politicians said during the last recession, we have to stop complaining and do something about it. The real question is when will this recession come to an end? Some people have lost all faith and have come to the conclusion that this is a permanent recession. Back in the early years of the recession, people came out with articles saying that this recession shouldn't last long and they doubt it will be more than two years maximum. America took these articles and held them to it and four years later Americans can't trust anyone anymore. With nothing to expect, people can only hope that more jobs are created and our economy returns back to normal so we can finally end this recession. The main fear of America at this stage is ending the recession, but entering a depression.
For More Information:
How Back to the Future Set High Expectations of the Future: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=78548
Economy Expectations in 1982 : http://www.labornotes.org/2011/04/prosperity-austerity-dialing-down-our-expectations
Economy Expectations in 1982 : http://www.labornotes.org/2011/04/prosperity-austerity-dialing-down-our-expectations
