The answer to those questions, at least for lower-to-middle class Americans, is to go backwards, and that obviously is not an option. Allow me to explain.
I'm 22 years old. It's an interesting age; young in the minds of many, old in my own mind. But a 22 year-old in 2017 is about as perfect of an age as you can have. I'm a millennial, you know, the kind of person that folks in the media and older generations call "soft" and make fun of for being lazy.
But the interesting thing is, I'm a tweener, as are most people that are a few years older or a few years younger than myself. I'm not that old person who you have to teach how to send out a tweet but I'm also a person who remembers what it's like to not being able to use your phone and the internet at home simultaneously (hi AOL!). I can do wonders with technology, yet I also vividly remember the introduction of the first smartphone in our society. And as somebody who can do all of those things, I can also tell you that the perfect mix is behind us.
What do I mean by the "perfect mix?" Think of it as a sugary drink, where you have to have the right amount of water and the right amount of powder to make it taste just right. That phase was the 90s to early 2000s. Before that, there wasn't enough sugary powder. Since then, there is too much of it.
Going forward, I'll address that time of 90s to early 2000s as the "golden era." In that golden era, we pretty much had all of the main elements of technology that we have today, but in moderation. Cell phones in size had gotten smaller and fit in your pocket, an improvement to the time preceding it, but it also wasn't the main attraction of the eyes in every family or friends gathering. You could pass time on those devices (playing "snake" on those Nokia phones, anybody?) but it wasn't the main event. The main event was still human interaction and consuming the experience around you.
There were still roles. You had the role of a consumer and you practiced that role by relying on professionals to do their job while you soaked in the experience. Now it's muddy water. A prime example of that is journalism and sports, an area in which I personally have a decent amount of experience. When you went to a game in the golden era, you were busy being rowdy, taunting the opposition and taking in the actual game. Pictures and video of those events and players were on the media, as journalists and photojournalists, to capture and provide to you. With the rise of the smartphone to societal normality, you have now become the fan and the person who wants to capture that moment, which leads to a lesser experience for you as a fan. Take this comparison for example. Here is a picture of Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki hitting the long-anticipated shot to cross him over the 30,000 points mark. Take a look at the people in the background, who by the way paid a lot of money for those great seats to watch a legend add to his legacy.
Again, those people paid to see Dirk hit that shot. But notice what they are actually doing. Most of them are watching Dirk through the filter of their phone screen. Quite a few of them are too busy making sure their phone camera is in position and they're just missing the shot all together. And then there is the few people (not counting those associated with the team) who are actually soaking in the moment. Now, in a little more of a blurry image, take a look at Michael Jordan hitting a game-winning shot in the 1997 NBA Finals.
Even though it's not as clear, you can look at the crowd and see people with their hands on their head or cupped over their mouth or just staring in anticipation of the shot. The photojournalists did their job in capturing the moment and the fans did what they paid to do, which is soak in the moment as it actually happened.
It's a lost art now in society, and that's just one example as it relates to sports. But in reality, this carries over to everything, whether it's family life or a healthy lifestyle or human interaction. See, in the golden era, we had awesome game systems like the PS2 or the XBox or GameCube, but when we wanted to play with or against a friend, we would take our machine to their place or they would come over and we'd sit side-by-side, maybe enjoying a snack and each others company while enjoying a game of Madden. Now, you have XBox Live, where you sit on your couch and just connect with your friend who is sitting miles away on their couch and play against each other. Do you get to play them in a game of Madden? Sure you do, but you don't get that quality time and human experience.
You see this throughout, whether it's the need to Snapchat while at a concert you paid a lot of money to see the performer or you meet your family once every few months and when you run out of things to talk about, instead of making a further effort, everybody just goes straight for the pocket and starts scrolling through Twitter or plugs in their headphones and is out of the loop for the rest of the time. Back in my high school days literally just 4-6 years ago, we were taught the art of elevator talk, a quick 20-40 second conversation to have with somebody as you ride the elevator together. Forget that, you can't even ask a simple "how are you" anymore because everybody just has their headphones plugged in their ears and is involved with themselves.
Seriously, I could go on forever. Coloring books? There's an app for that. Hell, want to decide something by a coin toss? THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT!
The problem is that this is only going to get worse as time goes on and the truth is, even the people like myself that despise it, will have to conform to it just to stay with the times. It is July of 2017 right now. It's mind-blowing to think that the very first iPhone hit the market almost exactly 10 years ago on June 29, 2007. Over those 10 years, every year a new model comes out, shrinking the world a little more every time, and we buy it. Having an iPhone isn't the "cool" thing anymore; it's the normal thing, and you're weird if you don't have a smartphone.
Are there positives to this crazy technological age and all of the advances? Sure there are; there are pros and cons to almost everything in life. Technology helps in medicine and business and so much more. But when you take a look at the bigger picture, the cons far outweigh the pros as a consumer in today's society. As to where there was too much water and not enough sugar pre-90s, there is now too much sugar mixed in the drink now, and honestly, it causes more headaches.
The golden era is just a memory now, preserved not in the camera roll of your smartphone but in actual, physical photographs that you had developed and were careful not to touch with your fingers.
See you in line at the Apple store in October when the next iPhone comes out. Unfortunately.
Disclaimer: This is speaking to a lower-to-middle class and above society in the United States of America. There are obviously less privileged parts around the world who this doesn't pertain to.
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