The (not so) simple life
It’s 5 a.m., and I’ve nearly mustered up enough motivation to place my fingers upon the keyboard before me and begin writing this. I’m fading quickly after spending the previous 10 hours studying for an upcoming exam. Discarded energy-drink cans, a blinking BlackBerry, and an HDTV replaying “SportsCenter” for the umpteenth time are scattered upon my peripherals. Welcome to the apocalyptic wasteland known as college.
My 21st-century brethren are granted all the life-simplifying luxuries that past generations missed out on. Yet, the sheer number of technologically diverse outlets afforded to millennials leave our minds entangled in a raw batter of information overload.
I vaguely recall an anecdote my father told me. To paraphrase: Back in “his” day, students spent nights scribing rather than typing, researching term papers nose-deep in cavernous libraries, and waiting hours in line to register for classes that may have already been filled. That was then, this is now.
Now, I can look in on the social life of everybody I know with a single point-click on Mozilla Firefox, automatically directing me to the Facebook homepage. Forget the hassle of orating thoughts over the phone when it’s simpler to QWERTY a no-small-talk message in half a minute. And who needs to read papers when global news websites consistently update and automatically refresh?
We’re becoming lethargic beasts. If needs and wants aren’t met within minutes, nay, seconds, then they’re not worth the time. Oh, the irony of ’90s kids. We grew up entranced by the pioneering of Internet access via screeching 56K. And now, we throw a fit if our wireless laptop takes longer than 10 seconds to load a page.
A 2009 Pew Research Center study found that 56 percent of adult Americans have accessed the Internet wirelessly. The same report said that nearly one-fifth of all Americans use the Internet through the means of a mobile device on a typical day, representing a growth of 73 percent since 2007. Contrary to popular belief, wireless does not equal freedom; wireless means a moment of relaxation may be interrupted at any time.
So does a symbiotic relationship between technology and global youth ease the stress of an otherwise hectic transition to maturity? Or are all the pleasantries of the “now” complicating the trial-by-error, physical experience of growing up? I argue the latter.
It’s time to break the glass ceiling of modern luxury and utilize our minds as more than just electronic ports.
Take, for example, how college students financially plan. Fiscal responsibility is not just periodically logging onto Wells Fargo online banking. Scanning pending transactions will never take the place of pressing ballpoint to checkbook.
There’s a reason the economic research firm Moebs Services reports banks are expected to collect a record-breaking $38.5 billion in overdraft fees this year. I would bet a good chunk of that amount stems from money mismanagement by 18- to 25-year-olds. Albeit, I assume the recession has its own substantial stake in the staggering statistic.
Maybe it’s inevitable that the era of sweat and blood, which built the backbone of America by way of calloused hands and blistered feet, has come to an end. A depressing aura surrounds me when I conjure the future. I picture myself nostalgically lecturing my children about the torture of being forced to sit at a desktop computer as a child.
So don’t count on me to practice what I preach. I’m certain when this paper hits the stands, I’ll have updated Facebook, responded to a bevy of e-mails, and texted my roommate to TiVo “The Office.”
I guess there’s a bit of hypocrite in all of us.
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