It's much the same for every generation. The truth that we continue to evolve not only as people, but as a society. Every decade different than the last, every generation's fingerprint smudging the record of time, leaving our own vandalism and graffiti to mark the fact of our existence in it. Even if not leading the pack, or being the shepherd, we can always look back on the then from now and exclaim our position as the sheep. Making fads popular, remembering gossip, and relationships formed and destroyed in that time. I'm sure my grandpa probably asked the same question when he was my age, of what are the next ten years going to bring? I know we are 90 days away from the new year approximately, but it's never to early to start wondering what the 2010-2020 decade will bring for us. Imagination is fun to use, especially in consideration of the future, and the pipe dreams that it can hold for us, personally, or as a society.
My first inclination of the future is always one I have seen before. Michael J. Fox is a part of it, on a skateboard that hovers, running from the school bullies. The Back To The Future trilogy is one of my favorites of all time. It seems to convey the most basic truth about the time line of history, and that is that history will repeat itself. Possibly the most important message that can be displayed. Technology, music, media, clothing, skateboards all changed from the 1955 to the 1985 to the 2015. All three time periods portrayed in the movie. 60 years of separation, and all that's changed is the conditions around which we live in. Sure it's a fictional movie, but the point is that in 1955 Marty McFly is chased by Biff and his crones which on skateboard, and the actions are exactly the same to the 2015 Marty McFly being chased by Griff (Biff's grandson-doppelganger). Time will change, but we don't necessarily. Fad's come and go. Milkshakes turn into Tab's or Pepsi-frees. The Four Aces turn into Huey Lewis and The News, but the bullies always end up in the manure.
As a way to cope with the changing of times, we consider any new millennium, any new century or decade as it's own entity. All with sub-entities, but as a general description of what was going on. The 80's, 90's and Double Oh's, the only three I've been a part of. A lot has changed in just that short time, and yet so many people are the same. But just like the fads that have come and gone, the small changes of our society, we have all changed slightly too. To subtle to recognize year to year, but put into the decade entity, those small changes have added up. It's not just the movement of ridiculous color schemes in clothes. Vocabularies are more diverse, not with vocabulary words, but vulgarity. The biggest transition that has shaped the way we communicate, technology. We don't hardly even speak to each other. A phone call is an inconvenience, even though we now carry our phones conveniently upon our person. But a text message is less contact, more comfortable, and more convenient. Takes the small talk out of the game, straight to the point.
The Internet, phones, PDA's, have all changed everything from 30 years ago. And tomorrow the newest iPhone will change all that too. We haven't adjusted even remotely to the progress of all this technology. It's not the slow moving industrial revolution, where a car that was built in 1916 is still very similar to a car built in 2006. The first cell phones are in no way even close to the ones that are out now. The technological revolution has moved so fast that we can't keep up. Even from when my older brother was in high school, to when I went through high school, some much had changed. He had a pager for the parents to keep tabs on him. I had a cell phone. Landlines still existed in his day. Hip-lines were my day. And we weren't a decade apart. It makes me fret a little about the future.
Disneyland's Tomorrow Land should no longer be the image that the 1950's of the future had put out. When the industrial revolution was nearing it's plateau, and the ideas of flying cars were a realistic idea of the next 50 years. Our idea of the future should be less human interaction. In 50 years I don't even see people leaving their own houses. Not for groceries (that can be purchased already on the Internet). Vacations will be simulated through some kind of crazy holographic room, like something out of Star Trek. That's not really imaginable in the next ten years. So what is?
Just a few small things that are already happening are going to become the 'norm' two-thousand teens fad that is already kind of recognizable with this decade. Internet dating. After high-school and college boys and girls will no longer have face to face contact. They will no longer have to meet in places like bars, or disco parlors. The have their place to meet, over the internet. They might not even meet face to face before they start dating. It's somewhat of a false relationship, built on what a picture can relate for physical attractions, and well thought out messages. But with 37 million mega pixels in every camera, I guess that's more accurate portrait than a face to face can produce. Are my kids even going to go on a date to a place like a coffee shop? Or bowling alley? It's much more convenient to just get on Skype for a face to face, and play a bowling game across the internet. My kid won't have to get a job, because a date like that is free. Won't have the need for an income for ventures with the opposite sex. Courting is already taking on a new persona, and is only scarily increasing in its own trend. Sailing blindly into uncharted, but imaginable ones that are not necessarily the best for our own society
It makes life so much easier. Especially the courting of women. The internet, though ultra high speed, isn't instantaneous as real life. Doesn't have inflections like your voice would have. It's plain text, and taken at face value. A question is asked in a facebook message, that can be thought about for the 'best' answer, not the truthful one. A sarcastic remark can be taken seriously. I think about how many stupid things I have said to women while trying to 'pick them up' face to face, that could have been entirely averted if I had had time to think about what I was going to say, instead of being put on the spot. The internet allows that buffer zone. It allows the right thing to be said. Even the right thing to say researched, quickly and conveniently. But that's where our society is heading. Convenience. It's not about putting in the hard work, or taking the time out of our all too busy schedules. We can't even decide to either watch House or Heroes, so we create a system that can record one, or both to be watched at a later time. We can continue living in both dream worlds for the time being. And I can still watch ESPN's top 10.
Of course we won't know what kind of real affects this sort of thing actually has on society, till it's too late. We're all to caught up in the moment of it all. The joy of being at the front of a fad. We jump on the train and ride it out like the mullet haircut. Then we look back at pictures of ourselves with mullets and neon green and yellow shirts, and say, how stupid and unaware we were then. We are embarrassed of ourselves to an extent, but always have the best scapegoat to use in such cases. 'It was the 90's.' 'It was the cool thing to do.'
I guess we never pay attention to the lines we cross. Not till it's too late. Not till it's too late to stop what we've started, to finish our race. To cross another line, and only look back at the race we just won or lost, and finally reflect, on whether the race was worth the run or not. Again, though, 3009, will they be looking at the smudge on history we've made? Is there going to be anything significant that next millennium they will remember us for? Do you know what was going on a millennium ago? I hear that One-Strap Goat Skin sandals by Dior were all the rage.
There's that word again: heavy. Why are things so heavy in the future? Is there a problem with the Earth's gravitational pull?- Doc Brown
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