Don't get me wrong...I like technological advances in communication and acquiring instant knowledge that is there at the touch of finger. I enjoy keeping touch electronically and shopping from home and being able to click on current weather and the latest news. However, when it comes to my phone, I want it for two reasons. One, to receive incoming calls. Two, to send outgoing calls. That's it.
It is almost impossible to have any kind of conversation with someone these days. I used to think they were constantly looking at their phone and furiously pushing their little phone buttons because I was too boring. Well...that's part of it. But then I would look around the restaurant, or the conference room, or wherever this would happen when I was in public with somebody, and I see a lot of people doing the same thing.
Remember when we were younger and would see someone on the street talking to themselves? The immediate reaction was, 'That guy's crazy.' Not anymore. I had to train myself to look and see if some cyborg contraption was sticking out the person's ear. They're so small these days you have to circle them like a buzzard to formulate whether you're dealing with a psycho or someone talking on their 'ear' phone. My programming as a kid is so enforced in my brain, that I have to know. Is he nuts...or isn't he. That is the question I must have answered.
In a bad way, we have voluntarily handed our privacy over to governments worldwide. They have a strong method to instantly track us, our movements, who we talk to, what we talk about and when/where. And, we gave it to 'em.
Do you ever watch the Murder Channel? That's what we call it at our house. It's Investigation Discovery and I'm an addict. I can't get enough of it. Anyway, one of the first things I learned about murdering somebody is never have your cell phone on or anywhere near your person. You want that baby pinging on a tower three-hundred miles away, I tell ya. Don't text your accomplices and after you've done the deed, kill them right away. You can learn a lot on that show.
The movie that best describes what is happening to us as we ignorantly plod along is the one that Bruce Willis starred in, called 'Surrogates'. Great movie, by the way. All the 'people' stayed in a trance like state while their young, gorgeous, well muscled doubles went about the daily routine they would have normally been doing.
We have become a people reliant on being fed. When I was a young boy, my parents didn't feed me entertainment. I had to go out and manufacture it myself. It wasn't done for me. My imagination was forced upon me and from that grew an inventiveness that you don't see much of in our society today. I think that's why I eventually became a somewhat decent writer. People are surprised that every story I write is in a different genre. They say, "Where do you come up with all these ideas?" John Grisham writes about what he knows. When have you seen him come out with a western or a horror story. Louis Lamour' would have been lost with writing a science fiction book. Stephen King has poked his head out of the horror genre a few times, and with great success. But he is one of the few to have done so. So, my answer is that I come up with these ideas from decades of inventive imagination when I've used it to entertain....myself. And, for a lot of people who grew up in the new computer age, they don't have a clue what I'm talking about.
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