Innovation Gone Wild
Photo Credit: http://foundations.uwgb.org/agriculture/
When we went to have family photos for our church directory, the photographer took the pictures and immediately showed us the “proofs.” We then chose the ones we wanted from the selection and promptly paid him, knowing we’d receive the package in the mail, in only a few weeks! While this seems like the logical thing to do in our very technological world, it wasn’t always so! Years ago when you went to a photographer, it required returning in several weeks to choose the “proofs” desired and then go back again to pay for them and pick them up!
The many changes over the last one hundred years in America, is mind boggling! After the Industrial Revolution, Americans were energized and excited about all they could do if given a chance! Once the railroad took root and the telegraph line emerged, new industries of all kinds were created across the nation. Some historians call what followed, the “Second Industrial Revolution” as new consumer goods were created and America became a place of mass production, consumption, and marketing, set on becoming a world power, leading in both technology and industry. 1
This was a time of great change for our country, and still change continues. Changes are apparent in how we are entertain: rather than meeting together in the kitchen or on the porch for conversation and fellowship, we meet in coffee houses or restaurants—or virtually, given the COVID pandemic. Instead of talking over the fence with our neighbor, our lives are placed on face book for everyone to see.
As vital as our computers are, they are being replaced everyday by iPods, iPhones and other smaller technological gadgets, which even synchronize with the computers, allowing us to always stay connected. Twitter is now the quickest way to get news out into the world about anything, replacing the telephone! And Google, or any other ‘search engine’, has almost entirely replaced searching books, libraries or any written literature for questions for absolutely anything!
Instead of preparing meals from scratch, food is bought from the store in prepackaged containers, as we eat ourselves into obesity. Instead of keeping busy with an outside world, walking, farming or otherwise regular exercise, we spend hours and hours in front of the television and on the computer, in a world of physical inactivity, creating health issues, as we become weaker and less able to even fight off diseases which complicate our medical world. Families no longer grow their own food, free of chemicals and pesticides, but consume food filled with salt, sugar, coloring, chemically induced hormones and insecticides to make shelf life longer, yet toxic.
We no longer live in an era of self-sufficiency, but rather in a world of government hand-outs and government regulations that often fosters dependency rather than encouraging people to become more self-reliant. Is this the life we really want? Has the era of great innovations and inventions been really “great” or is there a dark side?
New innovations aren’t a bad thing, but we’ve lost sight of what is really important. I challenge you to consider how you spend your days, using all the latest innovations, which are supposed to make our life less complicated even while we are actually busier. Do we need to step back, take a deep breath and reprioritize on what is important, re-think how we spend our time, communicate with our neighbor and families, or even, evaluate proper nutrition?