addendum II

last night on my commute home i thought of a better way to explain my thoughts and concerns about society and technology (apparently for me, commuting inspires deep thoughts).

you know how back in the 1950s they discovered how to mass produce food and make it last with the help of preservatives? this was monumental at the time because it came on the heels of the Depression and food rationing, and it meant more people had access to more food. and it meant the food was free of bacteria and other illness-causing organisms for longer stretches of time.

but then came foods with ingredient lists longer than the “X” section of the dictionary. eventually it came to ‘disinfecting’ meat with ammonia. pink slime in burgers. tertiary butylhydroquinone in chicken nuggets.

it went too far.

now the pendulum is swinging back from whence it came. the “in” thing to do today is to eat whole, natural foods, preferably from a local farm. “organic” is all the rage;  preservatives are the enemy. why? because people are getting fat from the quick, easy-to-come-by, fake food. they're developing diabetes, heart disease, cancer. all of a sudden someone realized, "hey, we're consuming vast amounts of chemicals here. maybe we should stop."

that's how i see social media and all this personal technology or whatever you call it. sure it has its benefits and it seems to be making life easier now, but when you think of the long term effects, can't you imagine a similar collective longing in the future to return to a more natural way of socializing and communicating? instead of becoming fat and ill, we’ll become lonely and withdrawn and someone may say, “hey, what the hell is going on here?”

quick and easy isn’t always the best way. actually, it’s usually not the best way. consider this Emerson quote: “adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience.”

mbm