Let's Go Back From The Future

 I seem to have a problem with the way we as a people interact with each other and it just gets worse daily.  I guess I am just sort of old fashioned; maybe a bit stubborn.   I don’t do what most of the world does in terms of social networking or things of that nature.  Well…I shouldn’t say “world”  because there are a lot of third world countries that are excluded just for lack of the proper means, but…let’s say I am not like the majority of Americans.

I like the way things were back in the late eighties, early nineties where we all had to work a little harder (if we wanted) to keep in touch with friends and family, promote upcoming events and search for information.  Everything seems to be a bit too easy now and that is a cause for concern to me. 

Even though I use the internet and a cell phone daily, I would gladly give it all back.  I do like the ease in which I can look up something online or research whatever I need researched.  I also like the idea of being accessible 24/7 with my children via cell phone.  I just thing that… maybe it would be alright if we didn’t have all that.  People would learn to be social rather than depend on a social networking site, people would be forced to learn how to use a library and search for information which would actually teach them something rather than being stored in their short term memory bank for 15 seconds.  People wouldn’t be so consumed with being accessible to their jobs at all hours and might learn to relax a bit more.  Music would be much better because illegal downloading songs wouldn’t kill the record industry (and it definitely killed it.)

I have a few myspace pages, but I never really got “into” the whole thing to begin with.  I made a personal page, and a few for different bands, but it wasn’t something I really updated too much and didn’t really utilize it the way I had envisioned…oh well.  I do not have a facebook and am not interested in tweeting on twitter.  That shit just seems like too much work.  I can’t be the only person who sees those types of things as a hassle can I?

My wife has a facebook and it is connected to her phone which is constantly going off because some dumb-ass posted some comment to a friend of hers who she had also commented on a week ago.  Are you serious?  Give me a break.  Also, apparently, if you do not update your status diligently throughout the day, well…I guess you are just lame.  People literally live their lives throughout facebook; that can’t be healthy.

Also am I the only one who sees how facebook and can destroy you?  I know people who have been fired from their jobs because they said something, have photos of something or commented on something inappropriate and got shit-canned immediately.  When you go on a job interview, HR searches out your facebook and researches you as a person.  I know I have a lot of things I don’t want my employer to know about me so why would I give them that information myself?  Also, with everyone and their brother having a camera phone, you are a million times more likely to have photos taken of you that you may not want.  Those pictures will inevitably end up online on someone’s page like facebook or twitter.  Not good if you ask me.

I am also so tired of hearing commercials, radio Jocks, and ads on TV promoting their twitter page.  Does everyone need to know my random thoughts throughout the day?  Do they need to know the next thing I plan on doing after taking a dump?  Do they need to see photos of me walking to my car after work and heading home?  NO, that is exactly why I don’t have a twitter page.  I don’t want to bore people with my average life during the day as I would not want to be bored with theirs.  M y nightlife would be pretty interesting, but that is stuff I wouldn’t want to make public record anyway.

When I was in school (Elementary School & High School) I was happy as shit with what I had.  I didn’t waste my time surfing the internet…I wasted my time being out and about meeting new people, getting into adventures, causing trouble, having sex, doing drugs, enjoying life.  I didn’t need the internet.  I didn’t need a cell phone for people to constantly call to check up on me.  I was social with people and learned to be who I am today.  If I wanted to play with a friend or see what someone was doing…I wouldn’t call their cell, send a Text, email or IM them.  I would hop on my bike ride over to their house and see what was up.  If they weren’t home, I could ride to the next friend’s house and so on.  Not only was I being proactive in my life and getting out of the house…I also got exercise.  Most kids now sit in front of the computer / TV, send emails and texts or whatever and turn into fat, lazy turds.

In High School I would talk to friends and we would ask eachother “What are we going to do tonight?”  Eventually we would jump in the car and find something to do.  Now kids are like, “what are we going to do?”  And one kid says “Oh, I have to update my facebook status, send out some tweets, jerk off to some online porn and call it a night.”  Booo.

That’s another thing…Porn.  Back in my day, I had to search the earth for some good porn.  I had to smuggle playboy magazines and whatever I could find in order to get good spank material.  I even resorted to watching scrambled adult television channels for hours on end just to get a few frames of porn to lock into my mental spank bank.  I appreciated porn so much more then people do now. 

It is so easy to get porn it is ridiculous.  Sometimes the hunt is just as good as the prize; remember that.  People don’t understand that now.  Back in the day if I got my hands on a Victoria’s Secret catalog…I was good for months.  Now a catalog like that is nothing…we have become desensitized with the advent of the internet.

Music is just not the same either.  Think of the greatest bands of all time.  All of them are from an era way before the internet.  You know why?  I do.  This is purely my opinion, but it is my opinion that the big bad record companies were actually making the bands make good music.  The record companies poured millions upon millions of dollars into producers, A&R reps, Studios, marketing and distribution that had a direct effect on the music.  Bands, even though they hated being told what to do by the labels and record executive, did what they had to do which in turn created masterpieces that we do not see today.

With the file sharing and illegal downloading, the record labels cannot do what they used to do which has created a large cesspool of shitty and mediocre music.  Anyone with a laptop computer can record their own music and save thousands of dollars it would have take to record in a professional studio with engineers and producers.  Why do you think Hip-Hop is so fucking popular…because anyone can do it and do it cheap.

There are no more Led Zeppelins, there will never be another The Who, a new Black Sabbath isn’t going to happen but we have a plethora of Fall Out Boys, Nickelbacks and Green Days…thank you internet.  Who needs timeless music anyway? 

I know I have a simple fantasy land idea that is impossible to happen unless some sort of catastrophic event occurs and knocks out our power around the globe, but it is a dream never the less.  I just wish my kids can grow up the way I did; without the world being at their fingertips.  I want them to have to work a little harder and learn a little more.  What can I do though?