At Odds With This Decade

note: just one odd thing before I begin, was it just me or was Fox being a little misleading, advertising a new 'House', then hitting us with a 1st season repeat... a good one at least (the origin of his condition), but still misleading... ah, well at least 'Boston Legal' is new :)

This is something of a two-parter only in the fact it is the first post of the evening. The next post, having to do with my quotation obsession has nothing to do with this, unless collecting quotes is at odds with the i-generation. Anyway,we have hit the halfway point of the decade (more than halfway if you cannot add and consider 2000 the starting point of this decade) and I wonder if it has an identity? What will it be called? How will it be remembered? (I rather like my i-generation jab, but the i's or the i-decade sounds a little off). When we reach the teens, what will the media (since their opinion is what really matters) make us think about the Ought's? The One's? A decade of War and Insurgency? A decade of Technology Rampant?

It always makes me wonder if the only thing this decade will be remembered for is rising oil costs and terrorism. It is probably well that those things should be remembered, but consider the technological changes of this decade. Look at a new car in 2006 vs. a new car in 2001. The new gps systems in most new cars and other technological improvements have been stunning, and who had really heard of a hybrid car before 2001? (Ok, I admit, I knew they were coming, but did not think I would actually drive one for awhile). Look at internet usage and cell phone saturation. Amazing to think that some countries in Europe are over 90 percent saturation. (Finland is near 100% and I hear babies are just implanted with cell phones by Nokia :) Now, in the US, it is not so high, but that day is coming. Everyone seems to have a cell phone, and most everyone I know has high speed internet (all but one of my friends and most of my family). Five years ago, many of my friends had high speed, but myself and more than a few others I knew had dial up. And as far as cell phones, everyone I know has one... 5 years ago, it was about 60 percent (5 years before that, about 20 percent).

Of course, is all this technology rampant good for us? Some of it is, making information flow easier, but sometimes its nice to not have so much information at ones fingertips. Researching in a musty library, reading a book or two, does not hurt at all. Now, we have Wikipedia and the like, which is not always right, to give us information about anything at all. The problem lies not in the fact that such things exist. It is that it makes us lazy and engenders plagiarism (as many professors can attest). I have seen(and participated in) many a discussion about academic integrity, and how professors are to be made accountable for what they say and do. To me, how the Internet has given students a way to circumvent good old fashioned work is galling, and is at the heart of academic integrity. The failing is that many do not notice... or, as has become more commonplace... do not care. And I not just in academia. Apathy is quite the disease now. I know of far too many people that could not be bothered to do much of anything. They do the one thing they are interested in, and eschew any other interest or responsibility so they can do more of their one thing (which is usually a form of online game or other related crack). On the other hand, I help friends make money off of obsessive interests. The irony, of course, is not lost on me.

Well, I suppose I have wondered, waffled and roamed tangential, as I tend not to focus on too many things at once. Perhaps that is why I am at odds with this decade... I have a such a wide variety of interests in a decade of apathetic focus (strange oxymoron, but that is the best way for me to describe it), it frustrates me a little bit. Now, I have been accused of being obsessive, except after observing those I know in their behavior, I realize I actually am not. So, whether for good or ill, that is how I am. And likewise for this decade I guess.

C.