Modern Man in 2020's

When I was smaller, I was exposed to a very interesting fact that I indeed tried to apply. It sounded like this: “The younger a person is the easier it is for him to learn information, learn how to behave and implant positive habits into his, her life. It is much harder to do so when that person grows up.” Which might be a good thing because if he is on the right track then negative influence is less likely to affect him, her. So I was teaching myself how to act properly, as well as it was done by my parents. But the interesting fact, that we read in the essay “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr, is that even a grown up can be rewired. Especially when it is being done is small doses creating a positive feeling – necessity for efficiency being fulfilled meanwhile nothing is triggering the realization of side effects caused by such a useful tool.

Today my question is this: If the adults are getting rewired then what is happening to us - younger generation? Who is that modern man of 2020’s? Personally, I don’t know, hope it’s not what it looks like it will be. Due to the position of present cultural level that was influenced by mass progress in technology, time is counted faster which makes people impatient media entertainment deflates compassion and a lot of positive feelings in general.

The world needs to understand that technology doesn’t only affect cultural lifestyle it also brings that factor of “to get everything out of me, you need to think like me”. A super perfect shot, with a bulls eye exclamation to it, was done by Nicholas Carr who used clock as an example to prove how it changed the way a society thinks and it’s fascinating to think that he is right. As soon as clocks and all sorts of watches became available to average people, that useful tool brought efficiency and showed changes the rhythm of life. Now everything needs to be done on time and when the time is right. Not only that the language changed a bit people started “living by the good clock”. What is mean is:

“Charley it is time for you to sleep”

“But I don’t want to sleep mommy”

“What are you talking about? It’s 9:30!”

Or

“Oh I need to go get lunch”

“Why?”

“Because it 12:30 and I haven’t had lunch yet”

And so on…

People start doing things not because they need to but because it’s time to do that. Necessity and instinct is put to the side and not practiced so that is why we got instructions on basic appliances and goods. People don’t think as much and don’t analyze they act in correspondence to directions and rules without making personal choices. That little time counter is connected to a chain of changes that are fueled by other things as well.

And if our grandparents were rewired than our parents grew up with it and it has become something usual, so usual that it takes us some time to understand what the one who has notice it means. So if our parents are being rewired while thy use internet for us – youth, it’s not even a process we face. It is the process of being wired which take not time to take place. What is meant by rewiring here is that it was proven by a group of scientists at the UCLA Research Center that a typical reader who can read and actually submerge into text has no or very little distraction rate as long as no exposure to internet took place. As soon as the person became comfortable with the internet (in the lab it was 5 days) the scanner showed that the brain parts that were active in non-deep readers matched the brain parts on typical readers which wasn’t the same before. That clearly shows that the change took place and the change is visible throughout the culture. It is hard for the modern generation to read books and novels. Because the ones who use internet have created a habit of jumping from one piece on information to another. And that is true in me too, before we got a computer I use to read books and be fascinated by them. Overfilled with emotions and mixed feeling I couldn’t understand why people don’t read that much. Time has passed now I am a photographer/graphic designer and the use of internet is constant in my life and I don’t feel that way anymore, I don’t want to read books, I always want something else I always need more, and need it quick. And just like Nicholas Carr was saying about the change in his reading habits “I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle” for many internet users. But what if that reading was never a struggle because you were not exposed to it? Then the price of that sort of internet like mindset habits will leave a poor effect on the days of modern man of 2020’s… We will just have to see!