Retro Like a Boss
As a precursor if you google the word inspiration you will find yourself inundated with link after link asking you to click and enjoy a boisterous kitten caboodle of quotes, sayings, memes and other such things.
Long ago I was young - or younger than I am today, and I found my inspiration in people, places, things....basic nouns really. Today our youth can explore a veritable plethora of "inspiring" things simply by clicking a keyboard or tapping a screen or speaking to "Alexa" or saying "ok Google, inspire me". We tell our phones what we want, and it tells us how to get it. We depend on "sky-net" to run our lives for us while we play second fiddle to a computer generated decision making process.
Silly really to dwell but I grew up at the cusp of the what would become the technological revolution we live with now. I am not discouraging the use of this technology, but I tend to wonder how much humanity is lost in our children if there best friend is a screen.
It's as though we are unknowingly creating a communication skills gap whereby we are losing a level of interpersonal skill that can not be replaced by "Alexa" or "Google".
I challenge you all to be inspired, not by what you google, or instagram or pin on pinterest, but by what you experience in life. After all this - what are we if we lose the ability to identify that which is in front of us because a screen didn't explain it to us.
Stop texting and call your friend. Send a Birthday Card via postal service. Mostly experience life without a gadget telling you where to go, what to do, and how to do it. Get lost in your car and ask a gas station attendant for directions, then get progressively more upset with every wrong turn. Go to a library and check out a book or hit up the your comic dealer for a back issue.
Be retro in thought and practice for a day. If you can find one, use a pay phone, pay in cash - avoid the cloud, shut off your screen, disengage from facebook, twitter, etc and just watch, read and listen.
Long ago I was young - or younger than I am today, and I found my inspiration in people, places, things....basic nouns really. Today our youth can explore a veritable plethora of "inspiring" things simply by clicking a keyboard or tapping a screen or speaking to "Alexa" or saying "ok Google, inspire me". We tell our phones what we want, and it tells us how to get it. We depend on "sky-net" to run our lives for us while we play second fiddle to a computer generated decision making process.
Silly really to dwell but I grew up at the cusp of the what would become the technological revolution we live with now. I am not discouraging the use of this technology, but I tend to wonder how much humanity is lost in our children if there best friend is a screen.
It's as though we are unknowingly creating a communication skills gap whereby we are losing a level of interpersonal skill that can not be replaced by "Alexa" or "Google".
I challenge you all to be inspired, not by what you google, or instagram or pin on pinterest, but by what you experience in life. After all this - what are we if we lose the ability to identify that which is in front of us because a screen didn't explain it to us.
Stop texting and call your friend. Send a Birthday Card via postal service. Mostly experience life without a gadget telling you where to go, what to do, and how to do it. Get lost in your car and ask a gas station attendant for directions, then get progressively more upset with every wrong turn. Go to a library and check out a book or hit up the your comic dealer for a back issue.
Be retro in thought and practice for a day. If you can find one, use a pay phone, pay in cash - avoid the cloud, shut off your screen, disengage from facebook, twitter, etc and just watch, read and listen.
I bet if you try hard enough you'll find yourself in uncharted territory. For those of you who can not remember a time before screens and google - it will be an experience - for those of you who can remember ordering from a catalog via snail mail - you might recall some wonderful memories.
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