Oh, the memory of a massive migraine caused by playing catch up on computer with my online college!

INFORMATION DISSEMINATION

Communication, transportation and information in the modern world are the three major areas that technological advances have changed the way we relate today. The technological advances all have contributed to the changing way humanity relates and interacts with each other, but has it improved our understanding and relationships? Or has it only added to the confusion?

Give me a ring, and not a diamond one! Miscommunication abounds in the modern world, interconnected as it is by the telephone. “In 1840, a man named Bell, invented a contraption we know so well…,” warbles Country Singer Reba MacIntyre, “…so why haven’t I, heard from you?” Missed communication and not just miscommunication, are the results of our busy, fast paced lives filled with conflicting appointments. Attempts to resolve the problems the solutions of modernity has caused only further exacerbates the situation with the endless game of playing phone tag via answering machines or dropped calls in cell phone dead zones, causing frustration in all but technophobes.

“Built Ford Tough!” Tout the TV ads for Ford Motor Corp., but Ford is jokingly referred to as an acronym known as; “fix or repair daily,” and also; “found on road dead.” Getting from point A to point B and back again, sometimes not, is the subject of the movie: “Planes, Trains and Automobiles.” Milling about in machines with moving parts prone to mechanical failure and human error give rise to such quips as: I went to Jamaica, my clothes went to Bermuda, but I was headed for Hawaii! Airline jokes aside, even drivers can be steered wrong by a road diversion not updated in their latest GPS device.

The Age of Information has been revolutionized primarily by computers and the ability to store vast amounts of data. Knowledge is power, as every salesperson is taught. An old insulting retort: bite me, has become; byte me! And super gigabyte size that to go…on everyone’s Equifax credit report for all eternity due to the unforgiving memory of machines. Another example of technology’s two steps backward for every step forward is experienced in the irretrievable loss of email and other instant messaging sent into cyberspace via the blue screen of death of a computer crashing.

Thus it can be seen that the rise of technology itself has given rise to its own unique problems, while being the solution to old ones. Whether or not these solutions and newer problems actually benefit humanity and improve the quality of life is left up to each individual. The rapidity of information exchange has given new meaning to the phrase: I didn’t mean to say that! As in email being gone once “send” is clicked, spoken words ending with the click of the receiver hanging up, and driving away replaces riding off into the sunset.