*Over the Holiday - Digital Xmas & Lifeblood of the Digital World
DIGITAL Christmas
Inside a warm home, sharing memories, chatting, eating and exchanging gifts with family and friends gathered around the fireplace watching “It’s A Wonderful Life”. The holidays are a time of celebration and togetherness. Every year our family spends Christmas at “Grandma’s house” where we play games and have a shared experience of family time with grandparents, aunts, uncles, in-laws and cousins. This year togetherness was individualized by digital gadgets separating everyone from the communal Christmas experience. Instead of listening to Grandpa tell stories and watching old family film clips on a reel, each did their own thing; grandpa got his first DVD player and thus watched his favorite comedian on DVD, grandma asked mom for assistance with her computer, uncle showed his latest design project accessible via his latest PDA (personal digital assistant) while cousins played games on their psp (PlayStation Portable) and watched downloaded movies from their iPod. Gone are the days of “mass media” family time where you sit down to watch one show all together. Today you can be in the same room but in a different world…digital device choice makes that possible.
ELECTRICITY – the bloodline of the digital age: thoughts from the December windstorm and week-long power outage
A world where everything is at your fingertips with the touch of a mouse can be cut off by the disappearance of energy i.e. a power outage. Over the past 48 hours and currently still, much of Western Washington, myself included (I finally made it to one of the last lights standing, downtown Seattle to run the laptop) is forced to do without electricity after Thursdays wind storm. Washingtonians and the digital generation are at a loss, sent back to caveman days without their necessary digital tools (computer – no “Google it” solution, phone – no cell and dead landline, credit – cannot buy your way out) to survive.
Blackness throughout, trees fallen through roofs, houses flooded by excess rain and clogged drains, drivers fighting for the last drop of gas, hour long grocery store lines for one cup of drip coffee (Starbucks natives in times of desperate measure). When there is no power to run gas for transportation, generators, computers, phone and landlines are down…people go back to basics – in search of food, water, shelter and heat. Nature is powerful until humans can control it, watch out! It is more than an “inconvenient truth!”
Lessons from the power outage:
• Never underestimate the fury of the weather!
• Proceed with caution at your own risk if caught driving a vehicle in super speed wind or areas without traffic lights.
• It is never possible to be too prepared! (Mom…I’m listening now I have the space blanket, flashlight, first aid, emergency food etc.)
• Required class – Cave Man 101 – how to build a fire, hunt and find food and locate water in a non-electric world.
• Discover/invent the source for limitless energy fast – solar, wind, water, gas, electric, battery, future-power so if one fails another is ready.
• Be thankful if you are lucky enough not to live in a frequented blackout prone part of the world.
My Christmas and birthday wish (on the 18th):
• Please restore power (that may help with my other wish)
• Peace in every heart throughout the world
Inside a warm home, sharing memories, chatting, eating and exchanging gifts with family and friends gathered around the fireplace watching “It’s A Wonderful Life”. The holidays are a time of celebration and togetherness. Every year our family spends Christmas at “Grandma’s house” where we play games and have a shared experience of family time with grandparents, aunts, uncles, in-laws and cousins. This year togetherness was individualized by digital gadgets separating everyone from the communal Christmas experience. Instead of listening to Grandpa tell stories and watching old family film clips on a reel, each did their own thing; grandpa got his first DVD player and thus watched his favorite comedian on DVD, grandma asked mom for assistance with her computer, uncle showed his latest design project accessible via his latest PDA (personal digital assistant) while cousins played games on their psp (PlayStation Portable) and watched downloaded movies from their iPod. Gone are the days of “mass media” family time where you sit down to watch one show all together. Today you can be in the same room but in a different world…digital device choice makes that possible.
ELECTRICITY – the bloodline of the digital age: thoughts from the December windstorm and week-long power outage
A world where everything is at your fingertips with the touch of a mouse can be cut off by the disappearance of energy i.e. a power outage. Over the past 48 hours and currently still, much of Western Washington, myself included (I finally made it to one of the last lights standing, downtown Seattle to run the laptop) is forced to do without electricity after Thursdays wind storm. Washingtonians and the digital generation are at a loss, sent back to caveman days without their necessary digital tools (computer – no “Google it” solution, phone – no cell and dead landline, credit – cannot buy your way out) to survive.
Blackness throughout, trees fallen through roofs, houses flooded by excess rain and clogged drains, drivers fighting for the last drop of gas, hour long grocery store lines for one cup of drip coffee (Starbucks natives in times of desperate measure). When there is no power to run gas for transportation, generators, computers, phone and landlines are down…people go back to basics – in search of food, water, shelter and heat. Nature is powerful until humans can control it, watch out! It is more than an “inconvenient truth!”
Lessons from the power outage:
• Never underestimate the fury of the weather!
• Proceed with caution at your own risk if caught driving a vehicle in super speed wind or areas without traffic lights.
• It is never possible to be too prepared! (Mom…I’m listening now I have the space blanket, flashlight, first aid, emergency food etc.)
• Required class – Cave Man 101 – how to build a fire, hunt and find food and locate water in a non-electric world.
• Discover/invent the source for limitless energy fast – solar, wind, water, gas, electric, battery, future-power so if one fails another is ready.
• Be thankful if you are lucky enough not to live in a frequented blackout prone part of the world.
My Christmas and birthday wish (on the 18th):
• Please restore power (that may help with my other wish)
• Peace in every heart throughout the world
posted by Stephanie Wilder at
11:13 AM
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