Simplicity

We live in a world that bombards our senses. Television advertising is a cornucopia of colors and sounds. I find marketing aimed at child audiences to be especially overwhelming, the blast of colors and fast-paced sounds come at you at a dizzying rate. Even more annoying are the little animated banner ads at the bottom of the TV screen DURING a broadcast, to remind us not to miss a program while we're already trying to watch the current one.

Some people call it sensory overload. But at what point is too much? In a world that recognizes Attention Deficit Disorder, isn't it ironic that our technological advances more or less feed and perpetuate it?

When our televisions aren't turning our brains into mush, our cell phones can easily pick up the slack. Text messages, emails, and application notifications have all but replaced traditional phone calls. From what I can recall, people once used claustrophobic glass boxes known as phone booths. And that's only because we were away from our homes where the land line was.

Computers have become smaller and more mobile. What once took up an entire room to do simple arithmetic calculations now has the capability of displaying full web pages and can fit in the palm of our hand, with touch screens.

It's amazing how the methods of exchanging information have evolved. We've gone from stone carvings, to ink and papyrus, to glossy pages of magazines, to animated billboards.

When I was a kid, I remember seeing my dad drinking a beer. The label on the can simply said, "BEER". It was a white can, with one word in bold black lettering describing what was in the can. I'm quite sure the product was probably as cheap in quality as the label, but it was plainly clear what the product was. In modern standards, this kind of label would be ridiculed. If it's not flashy and colorful, then it must be low quality.

Whatever happened to sealing a deal with a handshake? Now there's the long contract agreements in legalese and fine print that even the Department of the Treasury would be envious of. It seems like every product we use has a legal disclaimer attached to it, either releasing the manufacturer of any liability or warning us of licensing rights.

Food has become complex. We used to have to labor for it, either harvesting or hunting it. Now we just go to the store and pick it up off the shelf. It's no wonder that mom's home cooked meals taste so good. Dinner used to be made from fresh ingredients. Have you ever looked at the label on a can of soup lately? It looks like the periodic table of elements, and some of the ingredients by themselves don't look very appetizing. Pass the monosodium glutamate, please!

We've become oblivious to time, with 24-hour, round the clock lifestyles. Stores used to close at the end of the day; now we can go to the pharmacy at 3 in the morning when our prescription for Ambien runs out. It used to be that when banks closed, you had to wait until business hours to withdraw money. Now when I'm at the casino and have gambled away my cash, I can go to a machine and get more money on demand, to squander.

Life has become incredibly complicated. We rely more and more on our technology to maintain our lifestyle. And with that come the effects it has on us as a society. Look at how we communicate, and how technology has shaped the method in which we interact with each other. What would happen if electricity suddenly stopped working? It's frightening to even begin to imagine the potential chaos. Our technology is backing us into a corner, putting a stranglehold on our wallets as well as our sanity.

Someone once asked me, if I could go back in time to live in any given era, what would it be? I'd opt for the cave man era. Life seems pretty simple then. You woke up, killed something and ate it, and went back to sleep. The sun more or less dictated when you were active. All you had to really worry about was becoming a victim of the food chain.

I have become consumed with the modern way of living. I'm not saying it's bad. There are certainly plenty of great products and technologies that could be improved. Existing, simpler things could be greatly appreciated more also.

Let's not forget to appreciate what it is like to say hello to someone in person, to eat an apple fresh from the tree, and to feel the warm sun as it provides us the light we need for the moment.