Comedian Louis CK was on Late Night with Conan O'Brien explaining how amazing everything is, and yet nobody is happy. You'd think with all this technology and instant gratification, we would at least realize how lucky we are.
carye1... I don't necessarily disagree with what you are saying. We should never get so complacent that we stagnate progress in any area of science or technology.
However, I have to wonder why gadgets and convenience are the things we use to measure happiness. I'm pretty well connected. I'm married to an IT guy, so we have gadgets galore because that's his "thing". However, I could care less about those things. I don't let being overly connected stress me out. I can switch things off when I don't want to be easily accessible. Likewise, I can turn them on if I want to be. The things that define my happiness have nothing to do with the fact that I can talk to my sister on a web cam from five thousand miles away so much as the fact that I am close to my sister and the rest of my family. I have the best husband a woman could ask for, two awesome dogs, good friends, a positive outlook, and I do what I want when I want. I'm not rich, I'm not poor, but when it comes right down to it, I keep the stresses of living to a minimum by shrugging most of them off and moving on to more important things.
Noelegy:- I bet you'll find that the switch on the back of the phone is set to LD instead of DTMF. All exchanges in the UK still accept LD, though no one uses it much - only smart arses like me who can still tap-dial. I doubt the US is any different (that's if you're in the US - most of Neatorama's readers seem to be).
When we got our first cordless phone, my dad would come up behind whoever was using the phone, push them, and say, "Go on, walk around! That's what it's for!"
And my parents, in their little town, still have pulse dialing. Push button phones, but pulse dialing.
This is really funny, and we should be more content with what we have. It really made me stop and think.
But, the more I thought about it the more I realized that if we all were content with what we have, innovation and creation would stop. It is simply part of the human condition, and I believe a necessary one.
For example, if everyone was content with the rotary phone, and just accepted that wires limited the use, then cell phones would have never come about. Same with transportation - if no one wanted a better way to get around, we'd still be riding horses.
This was funny, but even he was unhappy with the technology he had- he said he was irritated with the rotary phone. What about the people who had no phones? Everyone is unhappy. But Jesus loves us.
However, I have to wonder why gadgets and convenience are the things we use to measure happiness. I'm pretty well connected. I'm married to an IT guy, so we have gadgets galore because that's his "thing". However, I could care less about those things. I don't let being overly connected stress me out. I can switch things off when I don't want to be easily accessible. Likewise, I can turn them on if I want to be. The things that define my happiness have nothing to do with the fact that I can talk to my sister on a web cam from five thousand miles away so much as the fact that I am close to my sister and the rest of my family. I have the best husband a woman could ask for, two awesome dogs, good friends, a positive outlook, and I do what I want when I want. I'm not rich, I'm not poor, but when it comes right down to it, I keep the stresses of living to a minimum by shrugging most of them off and moving on to more important things.
And my parents, in their little town, still have pulse dialing. Push button phones, but pulse dialing.
But, the more I thought about it the more I realized that if we all were content with what we have, innovation and creation would stop. It is simply part of the human condition, and I believe a necessary one.
For example, if everyone was content with the rotary phone, and just accepted that wires limited the use, then cell phones would have never come about. Same with transportation - if no one wanted a better way to get around, we'd still be riding horses.