The speed of New Media

New Media has changed the speed of, well, everything. The world now operates at speeds well beyond what we could have ever imagined. People are less patient.

What does this mean? Well to me it means that now everyone is send messages, communicating, researching and interacting online with one another so quickly that we as a society have lost something about what it means to be alive. Exactly what does it mean to be alive? I don't know for sure, but I do know that it should include taking the time to smell the roses, to enjoy the company of the people you care about, perhaps enjoy a delicious meal. Companies now operate to make profits. Regardless of what their mission statement may be, that it the bottom line, making money. We as individuals also now concentrate on getting 'stuff' and making money. By not having to communicate with each other in person, face to face, it's much easier to forget that the people are what makes the world go around. Interacting with someone in person may be slower than sending them a message on facebook, but it is real, and it gives us something that is intangible, that cannot be described or written on paper.

Who knows what lays ahead for the next generation, our kids, and their kids. Perhaps things were better before computers existed. For every benefit we gain with the next development in technology, we as a society have a loss. Whether it's the air we breathe, the animals we lose becoming extinct, or the loss of human interaction.