Hello World

It doesn’t take a genius to tell you that technology has changed the world we live in today; people have been spouting that kind of sentiment for decades.

“The world is a smaller place than it ever has been before”

“Staying in touch has never been easier”

“The internet puts the world at your fingertips”

These little tropes have been spouted to the point of meaningless cliche because we’ve known these things for quite a while now. With the frequency that new technology comes to fruition, there are only so many things now that can truly pique our interest.

The first iPhone? groundbreaking.

The first iPad? interesting.

The iPencil? really, who gives a crap.

And thus is the cycle of technological advancement, we’ve become so used to it that it takes the truly exceptional for us to truly notice. But with the exponential advancement of innovation and development comes a toll on society as a whole.

New concepts are being introduced to us at such a rate that we, as a society, do not have the capacity to comprehend them fast enough. Thus a fundamental question arises, how do we deal with technology as it matures faster than we do?

I’ve been fascinated by technology since as long as I can remember. I can map each period of my early life with some groundbreaking development in the tech world.

I was born around the same time the internet was.

My introduction to the world of music was not by record or cassette, but by iPod.

My first cellphone was capable of conducting a google search.

However in the times since then I can see that technology is not developing at my pace, it is surpassing it.

10 years ago I was blown away by the Nintendo Wii and the concept of motion controls, in just a couple of months the world will see the first full fledged immersive virtual reality device, the Oculus Rift. That is simply astounding to me.

But along with development comes the pitfalls associated with it. We have changed the way that society functions on a global scale and we have yet to adapt to the consequences.
With the creation of Facebook and social media, we so effortlessly share our lives with others that the line between privacy and lack thereof is blurred beyond recognition.

The internet has lead to such a free flow of ideas and information that we do not know how, or whether we even should, regulate what goes through our cables.

Concepts that were once basic ideas such as privacy and freedom of speech are no longer so clearly defined, and we as a society have to figure out a way to reconcile the concepts of old with the technology of the new.
Issues such as Net Neutrality indicate that the internet has created problems where there previously were none. Technology has created a new frontier of which we are at the forefront. Decisions that we as a society make today

will set precedent that will have longstanding effects on the future, and for generations to come.

It is a beautiful and terrifying world we live in, full of uncertainty and doubt, but it is one that I am glad I am a part of, and one which I look forward to sharing with you all.