Have you ever stopped to think about what a conversation would be like between a couple aliens sent to observe us?
Alien 1: “What are they doing?”
Alien 2: “What do you mean? This, apparently, is what they do most of the time. They sit in this room and stare at that box with the people in it.”
Alien 1: “Do they know those people?”
2: “No. I don’t think so. But, it’s strange — they do get very invested in the comings and goings of those people.”
1: “But they don’t know those people?”
2: “No.”
1. “The man — he’s not really paying attention to the people in the box.”
2. “No, he has a different set of people in the box that he’ll be paying attention to later tonight.”
1. “Do they only appear in the box at certain times?”
2. “No, it’s not like that. It’s more like inside the box are many books, and they can each choose which book to read when it’s their turn to choose.”
1. “Oh. And, right now, it’s the female’s choice?”
2. “It’s always the female’s choice. Until she goes to sleep.”
1: “What’s that one doing?”
2: Which one?
1: The younger one, with the strange colored hair and metal in her nose.
2: What do you mean?
1: Well, she’s in the room with the rest of them. But hasn’t looked up at the box even once. She’s staring at that thing in her hands.
2: Oh, yes. Well, she is what they call a “teenager,” and, apparently, they make up a strange and unpredictable subset of the species. That thing in her hands is her portal to her world. All of her friends … well, both of them, anyway … are in that little thing, all day long.
1. Okay. What about the, the … what do these people call the smaller version?
2. The “child?”
1. Yes, the child. He’s in the room, but he’s not staring at the box.
2. No. Actually, he has no interest in the lives of the people in that box. He’s more interested in fate of the strange, holographic people that he controls in the box that’s in his room.
1. So, why is he here?
2. Apparently, because togetherness is good.
And, yeah, this is what passes for togetherness these days.
Think about this: exactly 40 years ago Saturday (November 21, 1980), 83 *million* Americans watched the same television show. And no, it wasn’t the Super Bowl — it was the “Who Shot J.R.” episode of “Dallas.” By contrast, the only television show (non-Super Bowl) to garner more than 20 million American viewers last year was a Sunday Night Football game.
Once upon a time, when we were limited in our technology, we had a sort of common cultural language, for better or for worse. Every American seemed to know who J.R. was, who the Huxtables were, and that no matter if you were watching Sam, Dan, or Tom, you would probably get the same, basic news.
We have a multitude more choices now for what we ingest for entertainment; but, to a great degree, all those choices are doing is increasing the disconnectedness of society.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Technology is not the problem — it is just a tool. It’s how we’re using that tool that is the problem.
As we enter PanShutdown 2.0, and the Holiday Season, let’s be smarter. Use all that miraculous, wondrous technology to build the network of connections and connectedness. Instead of sitting around staring at different devices, dial up grandma on her iPad and bake something together; watch a big game with your college buddies while Zooming; play a trivia challenge with family friends.
The miracle of technology is going to provide us with three vaccines for the coronavirus in record time; let’s try not to emerge from our caves with a new plague of disconnectedness.
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December 04, 2020 at 07:46AM
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Let's not lose our humanity to this strange new world - Golden Transcript
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