I know, I know what you are thinking – do we really need another blog cluttering up the world wide web? Good question. What could I possibly add to the kazillions of bits and bites already flooding cyberspace? The endless stream of ones and zeros blinking on and off in a Northern Lights display of binary code. Do we need more conspiracy theories? More pictures of cute puppies? More recipes for tuna loaf? More half baked opinions from some pseudo-intellectual spewing his personal psycho babble about the events of the day. Don’t hypothesize just give me the facts. Just the facts ma’am.
We live in this time of hyper communication. Everything is right now split second instant. Remember when we thought the microwave was fast? But now I can hardly believe I have to wait a whole minute for my baked potato.
The information super highway. The thing that was going to make us all smarter. All the great thoughts of all the great minds in one big bundle at our disposal. Every book in every library available to us. And yet our reading and comprehensive skills are on a downward spiral. And don’t mention our spelling. Are we LOLing our way down the river instead of up? The only fish that swim with the current are dead. When you can only use x amount of characters to fritter your cyber friends one must dumb down the language. We have been building language for thousands years – inventing new words, borrowing words from other languages, incorporating regional dialects just so today we can say “cu l8tr”.
When man first laid down the cornerstone of language did he know what a powerful tool he had? Did he know he was designing a new medium and that the medium was the message? That words would outlast and endure the rise and fall of empires – ok well maybe not the Sumerians but in general. That someday someone would invent radio plays? Sure for the first few hundred years it was just grunts, squawks and whistles that provided an adequate means of communication but hey if all you have to do is warn somebody of an impending pterodactyl attack how many actual words do you need?
Then they invented words – at least a thousand of them so they could paint a picture and then things really started to happen. Before the invention of words hardly anyone used the telephone – oh sure it would ring and ring and ring, damn telemarketers. And it was the only time in history that you could win on Wheel of Fortune by making a word out of seven vowels.
As a species we have always prided ourselves on the fact we have an opposable digit – the thumb. Wow. But let’s be honest we could have survived without it. Look at the millions of animals who get by without a thumb. I mean except for the extinct ones that couldn’t survive due to a weakness in their…but here we are and we have come so far and yet – dramatic pause – what do we use our thumbs for? Texting. ROTFLMAO. This is what a million years of evolution was all about? Darwin at the helm of the Beagle would be so proud. So armed with our thumbs and our words we were moving on up to the east side to a deluxe apartment in the sky and nothing can stop us. Well except a pterodactyl attack.
Sure it’s great to be in touch in the moment especially when it’s an emergency but all this instantaneous myfacespacebook stuff is making us way too egocentric. I was playing a show a while back and between sets one of the producers was fiddling away at his very new and very expensive and already obsolete phone/camera/radon detector. After a minute he announced that he had just updated his status on his facebook page. Then he proceeded to read aloud the amusing little musing he had posted for his legions of fans – in the real 3D world he has maybe three friends if we count his mother – but I guess there are many who follow his every cyber step.
Have we become such self involved navel gazers that we think that the rest of the world is following us twenty four seven with wonder and delight at what we will do next. With all of our instant technical ability everybody is talking to everybody. But what are we saying? And who is listening?
So you ask if that’s how I feel why am I posting my thoughts and opinions here in this public forum. Another good question. Well let me say this about that – all the cool kids are doing it. I just wanted to fit in. Maybe somebody out there might want to know what lurks within the corners of my mind? Ok the truth – my mother is getting hundreds of hits a day with her blog and it’s just pictures of cute puppies and tuna loaf recipes and well I‘m jealous. I have been a practicing Luddite most of my life. It is a noble but albeit lost cause. It’s not like the Luddites will rise up seize control and suddenly Amish is the new black. Sure we would like to see a world that is a little less technology driven but it’s so hard to plan anything when we can’t get in touch with each other because we don’t have a central database or a website or even an answering machine.
So here I am cruising down the Infobahn. Yeah I’ve hit the road. The virtual interstate. I’m taillights people. One of them may be out but a one-eyed cat is easier to see in the dark.
Mr Bob Radio Blog 
