Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Our Fingers Hurt

I love that the internet is a great resource for all things. For any subject I can think of, I can find out almost everything about it on one of these little electronic boxes that live in my house, at my work, and everywhere else.

But...

I hate the fact that there's no more "I wonder...."

Especially when communicating with someone electronically, which, for better or worse, is the most common way to communicate in 2007. I can't say "I wonder who did the writing for the old Wonder Woman TV series." I can't say, "I think Bob Geren wore 53 for the Yanks." I can't say, "I don't know." Because whatever it is, I can look it up.

Out in the world, I can wonder. But even then, there's a chance the other person can get the internet on their little special device.

It's the same with songs. Hearing "Here Comes the Rain Again" isn't nearly as cool when you buy it by pressing a few buttons without ever getting dressed, let alone leaving the house, and then pressing a few more to make it play as it is when it just comes on the radio. It's cool to not be in control sometimes.

Technology can be good, but I still say one of these generations is gonna come out swingin' against it. I can see the scene playing out in a movie from two hundred years from now, celebrating the revolutionaries who said, "You don't understand, mom and dad. We want to play in the grass. We want to talk to other humans face to face. We want to use our whole bodies, not just our fingers. Our fingers hurt! You can sit in your e-chair and just mind-control away the day, but we can't take it anymore! We're going outside!"

Comments:
Nice post.

I also notice and frequently remark on this change. Personally, I prefer jumping up, running to the computer to Google something, rather than wracking my brains, calling my mom, trying to see if we have the fact in a book somewhere.

But it is different, that's for sure. As with all gains, something has been lost, too.
 
Thanks. But beyond just "to Google or not to Google," it's just weird to even ask, "Hey, does anyone know..." on a blog or something. Because the audience knows that you know you can look it up. It would seem like you're just "pretending" to wonder. (Unless you're doing a quiz...) So whenever you don't know something and don't WANT to look it up, you have to specify that. It's just weird.
 
I love your post -- and I think about stuff like this a lot too. The only easily accessible household source of information I had as a kid was the 1981 World Book Encyclopedia (you probably had something similar). It left a lot more room for "I wonder..."
 
We DID have it! Have you been going through my trash? It was big and think and black with golden sunken lettering on the cover. If I recall correctly.

We also had a book called "How to Do Just About Anything." My mom got to write an entry in it: How to play Hangman. And she had my sister and I play hangman, and they used the one I drew in the book. The word I came up with was "canyon." I wonder if that book is still in print.
 
Yeah, or at least a new version is. After WONDERing, I looked it up online, of course.
 
Haha...wow, you're famous! I looked it up online too. ( :
 

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