Antharia: ch@tter (aka story time)

ch@tter (aka story time)

Communicate On!

Some people say that all this technology we have now is pointless. "We don't need it!" "Why can't I just pick up the phone and call someone if I want to talk to them?" Some even say, "Yeah, those features are pretty cool, but I'd never use them!"

All good points, all true. I, myself, catch myself saying that sometimes. In fact, I survived all of last summer without a cell phone...and a really slow, rarely available Internet connection...in Europe...and I loved it.

But here I am, almost exactly a year later, checking email for my three different email accounts, blogging, and Facebook-ing with a wireless Internet connection; designing graphics on a Mac; and driving to work while talking on my Bluetooth.

So I don't have my own Mac, and I don't have an iPhone or a BlackBerry, and I don't Tweet yet. But I'm just as wired as ever, if not more. And so is the rest of the world.

New technologies have paved the way for means of communication that were completely inconceivable only a short time ago. Now, the thought of being without a cell phone for a day (or an hour) sends some people into panic! What would we do without all this technology?

Sometimes I wonder if these advances have just become addictions, more things for us to acquire and to show our status, feeding our tendency to be materialistic. Can all this be a good thing?

No? Yes? Maybe...?

Absolutely "Yes."

Just think about what's been happening in the news this past month: the 20th anniversary of the riots in Tiananmen Square & the uprising about the ‘election results' in Iran. Both China and Iran have tried to keep out and shut down forms of communication: journalists of any kind, emails, social networking sites, the list goes on. The leaders in these countries are essentially trying hiding the truth and reality of these situations from their own people.

In regards to Tiananmen Square in particular, the government wants the people to believe whatever the government decides is best. Many Chinese don't even know the massacre in Tiananmen Square happened at all! But those who were involved in the organization of the riots, the idealists, are still spending time in jail or are living their lives under constant government surveillance.

By shutting down idealist-minded people (and forms of communication they may use) the Chinese government is trying to make sure the events of June 4, 1989 never happen again.

And Iran has been trying to stop the riots in the same way as China, by shutting out news crews and mass communications. But if new crews can't get any news out of Iran, how do we know what's been happening?

Twitter. Photos from cell phones. Videos from cell phones. It's the average-looking person with a piece of technology in their hand, the guts to use it, and the guts to send the information out internationally. It's our wiredness. It's our technology.

Technologies are bringing people the information they deserve to know. In today's society, if it's our right to know than it's also our right to be wired! Ignorance may be bliss for some, but imagine all the things we wouldn't have if mankind were completely content just being blissful.

So I say to you all: "Communicate on!"

(And, of course, leave plenty of love for non-manmade goodness!)