Ayo Technology!

I love technology. Love it. Cell phones, Facebook, and high speed internet on my laptop while listening to my iPod, it's all fantastic.

Last month the power went out in my house for eight hours. I spent the time reading articles about robotics from the New Yorker on my Blackberry. If I'm bored on the subway, I read the latest news from the New York Times online, while waiting to refresh the pages on the few stations that have cell-phone access (psst, for me they're Rosedale, and Summerhill.) Within the next year, Toronto will finally have cell-phone access throughout entire Subway system. In other words, there will never be a moment during the day you will not be connected to the rest of the entire world. Not even for a second.

There are people who will say that this is a bad thing. That too much technology de-humanizes us, and alienates us from one another. Don't listen to them. They're idiots.

I haven't seen my friend Sid in nearly two years. I had to be reminded of that the other day because thanks to technology, it's so easy to keep in touch. A few months ago, while watching a fight with friends at a bar he texted me from China, asking me for some post-fight analysis. Fifteen years ago, instant communication like that from across the world would have required access to military equipment. Now, it doesn't matter if you're down the street or down the equator, it's all good, as long as you have a cell phone and a decent plan.

Imagine going back in time and showing your 1998-self an iPhone?

Now let me get this straight? This thing plays a thousand of hours of music, entire movies, goes on the internet, emails, sends text messages (whatever that is), in addition to making phone calls? And the thing fits in my pocket?

He'd probably think you were a witch.



And don't even get me started on YouTube and Wikipedia. Did you know that in the past hour, I re-lived the moment that The Rockers broke up, Oasis' historic 1996 Manchester performance, and the greatest scene ever in the history of French cinema? And it all took about five-seconds worth of effort.

And we haven't even gotten to Wikipedia yet. Have we fully understood the impact it will have on the future of education? Let a thousand flowers bloom! Information is now free and available for anyone in the entire world, regardless of wealth or status! I still remember the immense pride and satisfaction I felt after researching an entire law-school paper solely through Wikipedia. (Sure I got a C+ on it, but still...)

Remember the huge buzz a few years ago when the One-Laptop-Per-Child program was launched? The program sought to distribute a laptop to every single child in the developing world. In 2005, laptops built for 100 dollars seemed like an unattainable pipe-dream. The other day, I saw a Dell Netbook on sale for 299 at Best Buy.

How else has technology changed our lives? How about the fact that if it weren't for sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, Barack Obama would never have been elected President. Even as recently as the 2004 election, Obama's colour would have prevented him from being elected. And it wasn't like people got less racist in four years.

It was the fact that  social networking sites allowed Obama supporters to coalesce, organize, and see that there were enough of then to make supporting Obama worth their while. Everyone forgets this now, but Blacks were heavily behind Hillary Clinton at the beginning of the primary season. It wasn't until Obama looked like a viable candidate that his support amongst African-Americans began to grow. That would never have happened if Blacks, young voters, and everyone else who questioned whether a guy with a funny Swahili name could get elected, never saw that there were millions more just like them around the country.

And what about YouTube? Could the complexities of Obama's nearly 40 minute Race Speech ever have been understood out of context, and in ten second sound clips on TV? Of course not.

I have a very real example of how technology, specifically the internet, affected me and how I've lived my life. When I was fourteen, and the only kid in class with regular internet access, I found Roger Ebert's website. I was familiar with Ebert the television personality, but had never read any his written reviews for the Chicago Sun-Times (at the time his archive only went as far back as 1985. Slowly but surely, every single one of his reviews are finding their way onto the site.)

After reading his thoughtful analysis on films like Citizen Kane, Breathless, and Persona, I began to appreciate film as more than just a momentary distraction, but as art. It was through Ebert that I learned about Yazujiro Ozu, and his most famous film Tokyo Story. The movie tells the story of a couple who travel to Tokyo to visit their grown children; unfortunately, their children are too busy with their own lives to spend any time with their elderly parents. That's it. That's the entire premise. And yet, the act of watching this one little movie not only taught me how to be a better child, but person. In other words, I had learned the redemptive power of art.

 

In fact almost all of my current interests, from politics, to film, to mixed-martial-arts, to blogging, were discovered through the internet. Think about your own hobbies and passions, and you'll probably find the same. Trying to imagine life, even at a late-90s level of technology, now seems almost intolerable. I can hardly wait another ten years, so I can tell people how crappy this era was.