Recently I finished listening to the audiobook version of the new Tom Brokaw book,
The Time of Our Lives. The information that Mr. Brokaw relayed and the stories he told were fascinating, but I think the most interesting of all were his musings on the digital world. Brokaw spends a whole chapter discussing our obsession with everything digital. He looks at everything from his and his grandchildren's shared experiences learning to navigate the web together to the effect it has on our culture and journalism.
One statement that really jumped out at me was how we used to base our existence off of the Rene Descartes phrase "I think, therefore I am." But in today's world it has shifted to "I am online, therefore I am." Honestly and a bit sad to say, Brokaw's statement is all too true. Our lives are online and digitized. You are berated by friends if you don't have a computer in your home, never mind if you don't have a Facebook page. If you can't be found online, it is almost as if you don't exist nowadays.
Speaking of Descartes...I don't believe necessarily believe in "I think therefore I am" if you wonder why, read D'Amasio's "Descartes Error." A very interesting read.
ReplyDeleteThat's so funny -- I just read this after struggling to come to grips with the fact that someone I know doesn't have Facebook!
ReplyDeleteI never thought I'd see glimpses in real life of the Sci-Fi novels I like to read--nothing like the phrase "I'm online, therefore I am" seems to ring truer within a futuristic world... which is quickly becoming reality!
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