‘Atechnologic travesty

The reason why my generation is so lost

By Matthew Visser

rom watching the news,
F something I have been doing

more often since the voting
season kicked into high gear, I
have come to the conclusion that
my generation has lost its damn
mind. Watching the news, I saw a
young teenage girl lose herself, both
physically and mentally, because
she had lost her iPhone. While
witnessing this, I mentioned to my
friend that this was a clear example
of why my generation, the technology
generation, is slowly losing focus of
what really matters.

The girl said that that day was

the worst of her life and that she was
going to die, figuratively I hope, if
she did not find her iPhone. Really?
I can easily think of an endless list
of worse things that could have
happened to her that day. And this

is where I feel not only the teenage
girl has lost her sense of what really
matters in her life, but also others
like her. The younger generations
are growing up in a world that

is becoming centralized around
technology and the ways it affects
our planet. This seems to come at a
loss of identity for the individual and
causes them to become completely
dependent upon said technology. As
a result, we’re stuck with a bunch of

lost sheep who don’t know where to
go or how to live without their plastic
pieces of technology in hand.

Using the aforementioned girl
as an example, it is obvious that as
technology becomes more and more
incorporated into the human race
(even right now I am writing this
article on a laptop when not even
thirty years ago people were using
typewriters), the idea of the individual
begins to die out. People are losing

* touch with what it means to live

independently and for themselves.
The reality is that the teenage
girl is only one example of countless
others who have become utterly
dependent on technology for simple

 

Baier

 

things such as for how to get from
one place to another. The introduction
of GPSs and Google Maps has
completely changed how people
figure out directions on how to get
places.

I say lose the hand held plastic
pieces of technology and go back to
how life was before they took over
the pockets and purses of the world.
This will not only show you how
people lived and functioned back in
the day, but give you an appreciation
of what it is like to break free from
the dependency of technology, even if
it is just a little while.

 

Human on board

A stickler for stickers

By Jenn Markham

without seeing a “baby on board” sign

in someone’s car window. Now don’t
get me wrong, I understand the purpose
for them. It’s not for when I’m slipping on
black ice, my car is out of control and as
I’m hurdling towards another car, I see a
“baby on board” sign and swerve to miss
it. No. It’s for the aggressive drivers who

I: rare that I travel anywhere by car

follow too closely, or speed to pass, or cut
people off. Or people who do all of the
above, such as on Monday when I was
driving back from voting and someone

in a green minivan almost rear ended me,
honked, passed on the right where there
was no lane, and almost clipped a parked
car (and mine) on his way in front of me
because I was going thirty in a park zone.
I wonder if that driver would have acted
the same way if I were sporting a “baby

on board” sign? I would hope not.

The warning about babies feeds
off our inert human instinct to think
critically about our actions when babies,
or even small children, are involved. But
then again, shouldn’t we feel that way
about all drivers and passengers? I don’t
think I need to throw around statistics
about negligence being a huge cause of
fatal car accidents here. I wonder if any
of the people causing those accidents

ever considered that they would be
taking someone’s life, whether it be a
toddler of three years or even someone
of twenty? I’m not saying that parents
should stop having “baby on board”
signs displayed on their cars; I just don’t
think reconsidering the level of due care -
should be reliant on the age of the people
involved. Let’s all just hang “human on
board” signs in our cars and see where
that goes.

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