Whatever you Want, Whenever you Want It.

A few days ago I wrote about screens and how they've infiltrated our life.  You can read about it here.  Did you just see what happened there.  You clicked on something and it took you somewhere else in this online world for you to read about something.  If you were reading anything 20 years ago, chances are they'd point you to another resource and you'd have to physically get up and go find it.  We didn't have instant access to everything.

But really, if you are 15 years age or younger, consider yourself a Cavia porcellus.  I know, what's that?  You can read about those here.    That's not an insult, but you are an experiment.  We have no idea what this instant connection to any and all information is doing to your brains.  But not just you, although this way of life is all you will ever know.  For those older than 20.  We remember a time when you couldn't just watch or find anything we wanted.

I remember when Cable TV first started becoming popular.  My Grandma had it and we were always so excited to go to her house and have what we believed to be unlimited viewing options.  But at our house, it was 4-5 channels if we were lucky.  You could only watch what they had on.  Going back before that, there were even fewer.  And some people reading this even remember a time when there was NO tv at all.  And probably only one newspaper or radio station.

but we still don't know if they
have it "good" or not. 

We were only told a small amount of what the world was like.  We were really tied to our local community and our households.  That sounds nice.  That sounds simple.

But that's nearly impossible now.  We are instantly connected to anything and everything.  And we even get to choose what we want to read or watch.  Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, OnDemand.....we have so many different streaming options.  News outlets....we find the one that feeds our confirmation bias.  Even social groups online we interact with those we get along with.

While I feel like all of this increase in connectivity and options is a good thing, I also feel like it can be a huge problem for a lot of people.  Some get caught up in it.  And most of it you can't do much about and it can lead to increased levels of stress and other emotions that effect you negatively.  But on the flip, it could spur you into action.

It's a new world.  Or maybe it's not.  Maybe we just now know what's going on.  Time will tell.  In a time when everyone seems to be saying "less is more" it seems more and more is being put in front of us.