I've been thinking about world views. Is the current generation of children being brought up in an insular world of solitary technology like Xbox and Facebook? Might this insularity be compounded by the worldwide recession and a lack of space programme to create a wholly introspective world view? Is it possible that Kids, like many of our readers, who grew up during the space race have a wider world outlook, which even embraces an interest in the Solar System and beyond? But paradoxically more adults than ever are stargazing through telescopes and the internet, so maybe there's a quiet space race taking place. It's effects may trickle down to the next generation, who will hopefully manage to see beyond the current global recession and intra - nationalism and look up at the star systems around us to dream of going there. Not very well put I'm afraid. In short, have we stopped looking up? What do you think Swordies?
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7 comments:
being a bit of a game addict myself, id say its because the sense of awe and wonder that we used to conjour ourselves with a few toys and a lot of imagination, isnt needed any more. Games and the internet and films deliver way beyond what we could imagine as children, as a kid a letter posted one day would expect a reply from a local address in a week. Now we can 'talk' to anyone anywhere on the globe and see the surface of the inner planets in detail from our living room. Technology has delivered our dreams, packaged them, marketed them and offered them to anyone for a price. There are no secrets any more, no wonders, no real mystery. Even the moon landings have been questioned and the next probe to land on mars in August will probably have a facebook page and a live feed!
Agree with you totally, Wotan. As nowadays almost everything can be represented instantly, there seems to be no room for phantasy "space" (both inner and outer) which is the driving force behind human curiosity. As there is a box for every thought, thinking outside of the box - as they did in the 60's and 70's, big time - seems impossible. Yet just maybe, hopefully, that is only an illusion, the frontiers of phantasy and thought just being pushed further away.
It may just be a cyclic thing, and the next generation will, as you suggest Woodsy, once again have a "larger picture".
There are still people pushing at our boundaries, scientists at CERN and JPL for instance, but these things don't inspire the general public, possibly because they are hard to understand and are not as impressive as walking on another world. Yet at the same time, we live in a world where we can no longer do things that we once could, we can't go to the moon, we can't cross the Atlantic at the spped of sound. Has there been a time before when the next generation can't do what the previous one could? Possibly after the Roman Empire fell I suppose?
"Can't keep my eyes from the circling sky. Tongue-tied and twisted; just an Earthbound misfit, I..."
NASA are relying on and contracting an ever widening group of Private Space contractors across Texas, Florida, Nevada, Californ'EyeAy and beyond! It's not kids...it's money that might drive us to the stars!
It's really not that simple. To begin with, this insularity caused by so-called solitary technologies is questionable. When people our age were kids, we'd likely be out in the street playing (well, not me, cos of an over-protective mother). We'd be learning how to interact socially with others ... all sorts of useful skills. Looks good, doesn't it? And it really was.
But think of it ... how big was your world really? I bet it was limited to knowing people in quite a small area. Perhaps only a few streets.
But with these "insular" technologies, kids know and talk with people all over the world, not just in their local area. They are interacting with different cultures, and interacting in different ways too. It isn't simply that they are not exposed to learning the skills we did (and therefore it's bad, as so many say) it is that they are learning a different set of skills.
Facebook, Twitter, virtual worlds: they aren't things which have introduced wholly alien ways of thinking. Communication, the forming of cliques, etc, are all normal, natural aspects of human nature. Solitary-seeiming technologies are ways in which people "satisfy" those needs ... that is all they are: different ways to satisfy human needs which have always been there.
I do have some misgivings. It does seem to me that certain skills are being downplayed in favour of others. But I suspect that is more an interpretation than a reality. The media would have us believe kids do nothing but tap away at computers or phones (and we believe it ... some of us do) ... but the reality is not that simple, as a simple investigation would show. It never is simple with people: we and reality are far too complex for that.
But, yes, I do sometimes think kids today are missing out on much that was good. (And remember, similar comments about solitary pursuits were made about our generation watching too much TV, and reading too many comics.)
However, the reasons for that are not the solitary technologies. It is far more the cause of "anxiety". Anxiety is a tool used by various bodies: governments, advertising, big business. And it is that which drives people to look inwards. As I said earlier, as kids we (well some of us) were out all day, playing, unsupervised. Nowadays, there is too much fear for that. Sure, you do see kids out ... but not like when we were young (and let's be honest, some of those you do see are NOT the kind of kids you'd want to meet in a dark alley!). The media and government have managed to convince people that their kids will be snatched off the street in five minutes by sex-perverts if left unsupervised. Add to that the rules introduced by Labour (who should have known better) which sees EVERY adult a a potential child-abuser, and you have a situation rife with suspicion and insularity.
As for the larger picture. Much as I find the space programme exciting, I doubt it was really EVER that much of a way to look up and dream for most people. It's a lovely idea, but simply untrue. I've read that in America at the time of the last few Moon landings, TV companies got complaints that re-runs of well-loved shows were taken off air to show live footage of those landings. People actually wanted to watch repeats of ""I Love Lucy" rather than the most amazing exploits ever! (Luuuuucy! you have some 'splaning to do!) And that was back in the seventies ... a time when you imagine we were all looking up at the skies and dreaming. It never was that way for more than a short time. Orbiting the Moon? Yes, was then. Moon landing? Yes, then too. But after that ... forget it. Really. It's sad but true.
But that doesn't mean it's all over. Remember, it wasn't really about going to the stars in the first place, It was about beating the Russians. Now, it might happen for financial reasons, as Mav has rightly pointed out. So there could be a whole new set of adventures one day. It's not over, it just never was what you thought it was .. not for most people anyway.
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