I grew up in a simpler time, before the advent of the internet in the heaviest quantities. Looking back it makes me feel old to recall the block of a computer we had, the brick of a cell phone we used and how when I went to the library I used the dinosaur of a box that was known as a card catalog. These days I get weird looks when talk about such things to young kids who are at the age I was back then. They stare, tilt their head to one side and seem to mentally say, "God this guy must be 60 years old. He likely rode dinosaurs to school at the rate he's talking."
I won't say things were better when I was a kid, oh no. Kids today have a wonderful world of information I could only dream of when I was their age. Of course, by the same token they are more wired and plugged in to technology than I ever was or could be. They grew up with twitter, facebook, and phones the size of a wristwatch. I suppose by the time they're my age, they will look back and recall to their kids who communicate to people through cybernetic implants or some such thing. Those kids will stare, tilt their head, and remark mentally to all their friends through their own implants how it must have been when the dinosaurs roamed 2014.
This is a phenomena I call, "The Networked Age." Mark Twain coined the term "The Gilded Age" to describe the industrial revolution following the Civil War into the beginnings of the first World War. He, like me, grew up in a time of tremendous change, when America was transforming from a purely agrarian society to one governed by iron and steel. To Twain, the world was getting in a big damn hurry. Wealth and opulence were in abundance on the surface while being supported on the backs of the working class. Thus "gilded" gold over plainer iron.
Its a fitting metaphor, and thus I come back to my own, "The Networked Age." The term comes from our dependency on all things internet, on networking through ones and zeros taken form in words or pictures and information that we then process. We are all about networking, exchanging ideas and thoughts to one another from across the country and the world in ways Mark Twain could scarcely dream of. Indeed, this blog is about networking, about growing myself as a writer. That, however, is only a surface image.
What lies beneath is the truth, beyond the plastic coating and fiber-optics are a human heart and spirit yearning. We all yearn for that human interaction, something physical and emotional. The internet is a social platform yes, but not the same as the one we could physically create in closer proximity. It is both a blessing and a curse. I find the internet as new and expansive as the imagination. It is able to recall or summon anything at a moment's notice but at the same time bound to it's power. By the same token, when it's gone, we are disconnected and perhaps discontent.
What the future holds for the Networked Age is uncertain, for it is a shifting and tidal phenomena that grows with the humans who yearn for more. Dreams such as the cybernetics or even virtual reality are swiftly seeming more a reality. We find ourselves inspired by it, yet we yearn for more.
