Bleep! Bleep! Machines: Times they are a’changin!
Remember back to a time when Bleep! Bleep! machines were only found in hospitals, and looked like government designed robots from a pre-technology era, and if you were ever hooked up to a Bleep! Bleep! machine it was a bad thing because it meant you were only there to be monitored until your Bleep! Bleep! Bleep! turned into one long BLEEEEEEEEEP! and then you were dead.
But now, almost everything has become a Bleep! Bleep! machine, in the sense that everything around us is constantly beeping, ringing, dinging and vibrating. What’s more, in today’s society it’s frowned upon NOT to be connected to a Bleep! Bleep! machine of sorts.
Granted, not all of society is tech savvy, but they’re being forced to try. Last week at the grocery store I watched three people in front of me all struggle with the credit card machine. They didn’t know where to push, when to push, swipe to fast, swipe too slow….it has become, for some, a mental struggle to efficiently and effectively execute a grocery purchase.
But that’s just groceries and a plastic credit cards–we’ve been using those since the 1900′s. What about smart phones, laptop computers, web cameras, and digital video recorders and projectors? Imagine what all has evolved and been created in the last century. My grandmother never drove a car. Now my car has a “port” for me to plug in my “digital music player”…I just read somewhere that one of BMW’s newer car series has apps and you can listen to Pandora Radio while you’re stuck in traffic.
In 1935, American Kodak introduced the first modern color film, Kodachrome. For Christmas 2010, my husband bought me a fabulous 18 megapixel digital camera. I’m also wired to my Android, my MacbookPro and my iPod. My phone rings at me when someone calls me, my laptop dings and whoop-whoops when I’m doing something productive, and my iPod sings to me. These aren’t our granny’s Bleep! Bleep! machines. They’re our Bleep! Bleep! machines. They help us communicate, create, interact, express ourselves, and experience things beyond our physical grasp. They’re not longer symbols of impeding death, they’re instruments of our life!
I can sure relate to these conversations. I got divorced when my kids were small and met friends through my kids daycare and we have kept in touch over the years. They are good friends but I don't get to see them as much as I'd like to. This past mon
Very beautiful. I meditate when I get home from work. I get up at 5:30 and just can't get motivated to get up any earlier. When I wake up in the middle of the night, I immediately go to prayer. It's comforting. Teresa
I’m not nearly that wired, although I’m not a total stranger to technology. I have to wonder, though, if all the various ways to communicate – without actually seeing and talking to another human being – might not be rather like death after all? ♥