Thursday, May 24, 2012

"Raised amid bounty and freedom, the American soldier seems a poor candidate to learn ex nihilo the craft of killing. How can a suburban teenager suddenly be asked to face and defeat the likes of zealots, whether on Okinawa's Shuri Line or at Fallujah in the Sunni Triangle?" - With the Old Breed - E. B. Sledge

Monday, May 21, 2012

Digital Society Challenge

Over the years I have been focused on the growing popular demand - computers and electronics. The world has changed due to the invention of amazing devices that keep us up to date with our friends at all times. People everywhere are constantly facebooking, texting, and skyping friends around the world or in their neighborhood. I even went so far as develope my own project for helping turn your house into an online device, complete connectability. This link to the wide world web has driven people to become dependant on computers to get their social experience. Where we once lived in a society where people wanted to go out in groups and travel to find new experiences, we now see a generation of people who would rather "share/tweet" than go out and find it themselves. Reading levels are droping, schools are finding less focus, and relationships are driven by the NEED to feel constantly loved by "likes" and posts. I should know, being overseas I can say that I was one of them.

Due to my job I had to exit my very close personal life that I had before the military. I used to be driven by listening to people and try to talk about things that mattered to different groups of people. Very recently I have started watching people again and have started to listen to relationship issues and problems. The more I listened, the more I realized the game has changed for my generation. Who in their right mind would have ever dreamed that so much jealousy and anger could be built up by such a simple things as text messages. Before this age people could exit their schools and go home to close friends to hang out with or daily activities; however, it would seem the new standard is to leave school and enter into a different social world until they goto sleep. This social world is not driven by the desire to learn or find something new, but to laugh at dumb stuff, like peoples mirror pictures, and post a link about how upset they are about the government or some movement they know very little about. The human relationship and dynamic has created a base around a popularity contest on facebook.

The other day I was reading the book "World War Z", a pretty shock-n-awe book about another zombie apocalypse. The difference between most zombie books and this one is they talk about rebuilding after 90% of the population has been killed. It broke down how most jobs these days require a computer to complete and that the average person barely knows how to change a tire, fix a window, and more importantly to their story restructure a government. Now, while I don't believe a zombie apocalypse is in our near future, I do feel that people must always be prepared for a collapse from the norm. Too many people are comfortable these days, buying equipment/electronics DESIGNED to die after 2 years, and then buying another after that one dies. Unless you want to be the guy on the losing end without the skills to survive you may want to take the time to develop at LEAST 1 skill. Common tasks that most people consider as too basic to mess with are skills that everyone should have down. Cooking, survival technics, basic medicine knowledge, how to fix a car, how to build from stratch, etc etc. Most people are going to argue one thing - Money. You can make a larger amount of money with a skill than you can waiting for the world to teach you something you have to apply in a cubical.

I want to present a challenge - exit your facebook/twitter life. I challenge you to track how many hours you spend on facebook/twitter a week. Once you add up how much time you either access a social network online either by phone or computer, try the next week to substitute that time with an activity - reading, skateboarding, running, lifting weights, watching lectures, etc etc. If you are one of the many I know who spend well over 8 hours a day talking or somehow connected to facebook/twitter, try the following - You don't have to delete facebook, simply delete all links to it when you get online (homepage, bookmarks, etc). Try steping away from facebook for a couple of weeks, read a new book and then get online and write about what you thought about it, or simply jump in your car and drive around to find a place to meet ANYONE new.

Life is too short for the amount of emotion people are placing themselves in by thinking you need to be an image online. Please share any new experiences you have, I want to talk about books you've read, ideas you've had, goals you want to accomplish, or simply things you'd love to learn. I'll do my best to do the same.

My hobbies/skills: Photography, all things computer related, graphics design, reading (check my favorite's section for book ideas), and travel.