Communication
I just got a call from my friend Lisa, who is apparently stranded somewhere in West Seneca and needed me to look at a map for her and direct her to the nearest bus stop that would get her home. After hanging up and feeling like the conversation had actually given a measure of purpose to my evening, it occurred to me that in an age of smart phones, she and I are among the last people who will have this experience of having to actually collaborate to figure such things out.
Not only did she have to reach out to me in order to solve a problem, I was prompted to experience that problem vicariously, to actively visualize where she was and where she needed to get to. A normal, middle class person with the latest in communications technology would, oddly enough, not have to communicate with anyone in this situation. Does no one who actually has such resources find that a world of constant access and easy information is a lonely world?
I guess there's that much to be said for poverty: it allows some individuals to appreciate some of those things that were taken for granted until they were swiftly replaced.
Not only did she have to reach out to me in order to solve a problem, I was prompted to experience that problem vicariously, to actively visualize where she was and where she needed to get to. A normal, middle class person with the latest in communications technology would, oddly enough, not have to communicate with anyone in this situation. Does no one who actually has such resources find that a world of constant access and easy information is a lonely world?
I guess there's that much to be said for poverty: it allows some individuals to appreciate some of those things that were taken for granted until they were swiftly replaced.