"I wonder if any generation will see the kind of advances mine has?'

When I awoke this morning, as many off us do (and some of us have been discussing) I checked my iPhone. It was the first thing I did.  It's always the first thing I do. Initially I check it to see what time it is.  Or at least that's the excuse I'm making to myself. But almost immediately I am sucked in by the bright screen. Every morning before I get up I (attempt to) check, in varying orders, my Emails, Facebook , Twitter, Whatsapp and a varying news website depending on my current taste. 

Bethany and I were discussing on her Blog post how although we see ourselves as almost obsessed by what we now understand to be Web 2.0 technologies, in actual fact, for me at least, the obsession is my iPhone.  I do not wake up and dive for my computer to see what has happened, even though often it is next to me or even in bed as I have fallen asleep working. In fact, I am not even sure I know how to use Facebook outside of the mobile application these days, and I certainly am not 100% sure of my Twitter login.

On my Blog entry Task 1b in the second paragraph I pose the thought: 

"I often wonder if any other generation is going to see the kind of advances mine has seen."

I mentioned this in a conversation I got myself into after class this week.  I was chatting to a really interesting couple about the BAPP and this blog etc whilst their daughter got changed to go home. I've discussed briefly in previous Blogs some of the negatives of being here, but one of the positives is being surrounded by people who are 'high up' in their job, really know their trade/craft, work in incredibly diverse fields and have a broad wealth of knowledge and experience.  These people, and their families, have been sent by their respective companies, all expenses paid to work in a foreign country. For me, this along with the 'ways of the country' mean I get my knowledge, thoughts and ideas expanded, developed, challenged or changed every day.

The consensus from the couple was that if you look back at records and accounts from 100 years ago the same statement would have been made by generations of that time, and with a quick Google search of "inventions 100 years ago" I believe the same question would have been posed. Their experience should have given us the knowledge that whilst many advances are to be celebrated many can be destructive - a lesson we might do well to remember.  

This leads me to an article by Giles Coren written for The Times which I saw on Twitter this morning:  Here is the original article for those of you who have a subscription.  For those that don't please see this version. For me it is particularly interesting (and relevant) from paragraph nine.  Within the article Coren states:

"In 1913-14, the world stood on the brink of a confrontation in which the old would collide with the new in a most horrific way. Modern technology — originally developed with the best of intentions — would sweep away a generation..." 

So they were right.  100 years on and the technology in question might be different but the advances, in comparison, were still there and we are once again jumping headfirst into a world we have allowed ourselves to believe in.  A world we hope will better us. 

Coren's final thought:

"A century on, the lamps are going out again

There isn’t any turning back now, as there was not 100 years ago. And just like 100 years ago there are vested interests, in cold alliance with lazy thinkers, telling us to stop worrying, it is all going to be fine. But it wasn’t then. And it won’t be this time either."