Screens (in progress)
When our civilization collapses, as it surely will at some point since no civilization has ever lasted, and the remaining humans begin their own rituals and traditions, they will look back upon us not as a culture that worshipped God, Allah, or even money, but instead they will see us as "The Screen People." Think about it, how do we decipher the ruins of our ancient civilizations? We look at the remains they leave and try piecing the civilization back together with our best scientific guesses. Theories about the economies, living standards, etc. come after the fact.
Televisions, cell phones, computers, laptops, electronic billboards everywhere let alone in places like NY and Vegas, medical monitors, movie theaters, entertainment monitors, ebooks, cameras, portable dvd players, ipods, car tvs, car cameras, palm pilots, everything we do is through screens! And now with more and more things that used to represent physical culture becoming digital, all that we will have to leave behind are the empty screens. Because we all know just how long your new cell phone lasts, or the life of the newest ipod, so to think that they'll still work in 2000 years shows just how plugged into our digital dream you really are. All of the literary masterpieces will be erased, lost to the digital ether. But that's what you get when you change 1984 into a computer code.
And who knows if we'll even have any art to leave behind? I'm completely covered in tattoos like the next man, but that's part of the problem isn't it? All of our art is becoming biodegradable; living flesh that can only be preserved through mummification or skinning, and not many people are donating their bodies, eh? But how cool if they did? Future museums filled with our generations skin on display, each in different sections. "Teacher, the tribal section sucks zorg balls, can we go see the Zombie tattoos?"
But how else can future people see our culture other than that? If you figure that the average American family has at least 2 tvs , plus 2-5 cell phones, probably the same amount of ipods, 2-3 computers. . .they are our new gods. Blank machines we stare at , focus on, yell at, and even converse with. Television was created and grew beyond acceptance, it became a babysitter for parents and a friend to children. And now all of our technology has grown around the screen, which in turn shapes our culture to be screen centered.
Televisions, cell phones, computers, laptops, electronic billboards everywhere let alone in places like NY and Vegas, medical monitors, movie theaters, entertainment monitors, ebooks, cameras, portable dvd players, ipods, car tvs, car cameras, palm pilots, everything we do is through screens! And now with more and more things that used to represent physical culture becoming digital, all that we will have to leave behind are the empty screens. Because we all know just how long your new cell phone lasts, or the life of the newest ipod, so to think that they'll still work in 2000 years shows just how plugged into our digital dream you really are. All of the literary masterpieces will be erased, lost to the digital ether. But that's what you get when you change 1984 into a computer code.
And who knows if we'll even have any art to leave behind? I'm completely covered in tattoos like the next man, but that's part of the problem isn't it? All of our art is becoming biodegradable; living flesh that can only be preserved through mummification or skinning, and not many people are donating their bodies, eh? But how cool if they did? Future museums filled with our generations skin on display, each in different sections. "Teacher, the tribal section sucks zorg balls, can we go see the Zombie tattoos?"
But how else can future people see our culture other than that? If you figure that the average American family has at least 2 tvs , plus 2-5 cell phones, probably the same amount of ipods, 2-3 computers. . .they are our new gods. Blank machines we stare at , focus on, yell at, and even converse with. Television was created and grew beyond acceptance, it became a babysitter for parents and a friend to children. And now all of our technology has grown around the screen, which in turn shapes our culture to be screen centered.