Break in Technology

Finally back after an extended vacation where I got to hang out with the coolest guy in the world.... my dad.


Anyways I was just chilling minding my own business being cool and writing some emails when I got a work related email from a colleague that got me thinking about technology and age and more specifically how they relate. Now this gentleman is about 55 or so and is in the generation above me which means that we have a lot of differing features in the way we read, write, speak, etc. and I think most people would agree that there are huge difference from generation to generation. And after reading this email, for me, that was ever so evident.

While reading this email I got this feeling that this person was extremely angry with someone else, (not me, I was just copied on it) but when I talked to the individual that wrote it he kind of chuckled and laughed explaining that it wasn't supposed to be in an angry tone at all.. I kind of looked puzzled as I thought back to what he had wrote and the tone in which I felt it was written in. Hmm, really was he that oblivious to how the email read?

You can probably all think of a friend that you know that doesn't write emails all that much or writes in one sentence formats, and sometimes that is too much. I have seen as little as 3 or less word answers and the author behind these emails generally thinks that is enough to answer the 4 questions you wrote to them above. Really??

Now email has a many advantages such as; response time, quicker than writing, fast delivery, etc. But there are also disadvantages which include; the inability to always express the tone of your writing (especially if you from an older generation), lost emails or intercepted ones, falsely written email addresses, etc. I mean think about it, we are long overdue for someone to make a "sarcasm color rule," I mean why can't someone make a rule that when you are joking you need to write your comment in green. Pretty simple eh?

Anyways just wanted to chat a bit about the inability for some people to communicate successfully the way they want to through the Internet. For me it's easy to see a generational gap which lines up quite nicely to way people can or can't write emails.

Get with the times old people.... geeez. :P

Posted in: , , , , on Monday, August 24, 2009 at at 2:34 PM 4 comments  

Imagination 2.0

It’s 1988, you are still just a little tyke and you are walking around wearing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle underwear and superman T-shirts covered in ketchup stains. You are sitting in the sandbox playing with your Tonka truck, big yellow style bulldozing toys. Thinking about digging your way to China crosses your mind a few times, but at this age it’s not China, it’s your grandma’s house as you don’t know much else. You start to make noises in your head and mimic the sounds that you think the trucks are supposed to make, it comes out of your mouth in changing pitches of “brrrmmm” and “pshhh” as you push the toy back and forth and make them crash into each other. You have this whole imaginary world going on in your head where everything makes sense, and if it doesn’t who cares, you just assign some imaginary thing to whatever it is that you don’t understand and go along playing some more.

Life is great, life is easy, life is, as explained by Forrest Gump, “Like a box of chocolates, you never know what yer gunna get..” But at this age it doesn’t matter what you get because you are happy with it. And if you don’t have something you want you just make it up in your head with your imagination and go from there. Simple. Easy. Imaginative.

Where does this skill of being imaginative go when we get older? Where does the feeling of being able to be happy with whatever it is that someone sets in front of you go? We seem to lose it, but why?

Is it because we get older and reality hits us? Because we have bills to pay and work to do and the strain of everyday life or everyday realisms hit us like a ton of bricks? We possibly start to trick ourselves that only things that are monetary can bring us happiness. We need to buy this motorcycle or this car to be happy. The trip to the Maldives is the only ways that I would be able to get some relief from everyday life, etc. Why is that, why do we get into this type of rut?


It seems as though the “simply happinesses” that we were once accustomed to having every minute of everyday are now no more. We can’t imagine anymore about digging in the sandbox and trying to get to grandma’s house. Logic seems to get in the way and we know it’s not actually possible and if it was, it sure isn’t realistic. At least not unless you have a tunnel drilling machine. So with that being said, does that mean that we have become too smart to imagine things for happiness? Or the only way we can use our imagination for happiness is for a quick joke or if we are possibly a great inventor?

Who knows, I am just to get to the bottom of one aspect of people being happy because of reasons that don’t revolve around money, physical property or beauty. It seems it’s quite hard to do, especially if you cut out family and friends. Can we be happy by ourselves?

Just something to munch on during your hump day……

Posted in: , , , on Wednesday, August 5, 2009 at at 10:51 AM 7 comments  

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