But It’s All Over Now

Great song performed by the Rolling Stones way back when.

Because I used to love her, but it’s all over now. That’s how I feel about the internet. I remember when it first came about. We had AOL. You could get online via a dial-up modem. Most everything was home-grown, it felt like there was plenty of space. Of course there was pornography, my guess is it was one of the first things that got posted outside of educational sites, guys being what they are. I remember my surprise in visiting the Whitehouse website, when I forgot to use. .org. So you could end up in some bad spots but nothing you couldn’t just back out of.

Now I think of it as the failed promise of the internet. Then, it was a collection of small sites that we hoped would open up the world. Within a few years a couple of dominant players arrived and took over. About 2010 I realized, from my own family experience, that starting a delivery service for seniors would be a good idea. Before I knew it, Shipt was advertising in my area, and my dreams of setting up a local service for those who could no longer drive were dashed. Shipt was everywhere, and there was no need to speak to anyone to have things delivered. Just go online (most of the customers wouldn’t use computers but their families would). In this case, instead of humans interacting with each other, it’s humans interacting with machines. And you can repeat that a million times over. Because the simple fact is, it’s easier to work with a machine than it is with a human.

Now everyone who uses social media, and I am one of the very few people I know who don’t, puts details about their lives out on the internet, probably thinking that only a few people have access to it. That is so wrong. Once it’s out there, it can end up literally anywhere. A former law enforcement office told me a few years ago that he stays away from social media. Everything law enforcement used to have to get a warrant for is now available for free on social media. You may have nothing to hide, but the world changes, rapidly these days, and what was innocent last year may be incriminating this year.

But that’s not the worst part of it. The worst part is that social media has become a megaphone for everyone to shout insults at the world. As though this is how civilization is supposed to be. Every time something happens in the world everyone runs to social media and puts their two cent’s worth in. Every event has a commentary immediately, without time for gathering facts, without time for reflection. And the worst, most hateful, most arrogant and unfeeling comments are the ones that go viral. It is poisoning our society. People say things on social media that they would never say to someone face to face. They are shielded by the screen from immediate condemnation, or a slap in the face. But the screen no longer shields anyone for long. I’ve seen numerous accounts of people whose lives were crushed because of social media, and often for things that weren’t even true.

So why not disengage with it? If people would stop using it, the world would not end. They would still have friends. You might have to reach out to them directly, by text or heaven forbid, a real phone call where you can hear emotions in each other’s voice and not have to rely on emojis for kinda sorta what you meant. If the whole social media era ended tomorrow it would be the best hope we have of rebuilding our broken society.

Make America Great Again

Just when was this period of time when America was great? Because it’s looking more and more like the early twentieth century. Then, a few men had amassed enormous wealth. Small businesses were bought up and shut down to stifle competition. Prices kept rising because anyone who tried to come in with a better product at a better cost was quickly put out of business. That seems pretty close to what’s going on today. CEOs travel around the world on their private planes, going from one luxury mansion to another while the cost of living for working families keeps rising. Groceries, gasoline, not to mention rent or the cost of owning a home, all have steadily increased, and rapidly increased since the rise of the super rich.

Is there a correlation? I suspect there is. Technology is right there in the middle of it, maybe at the root of it too. Technology has allowed companies to offload many of the costs of doing business onto the consumer. For instance, how often do you get a paper statement in the mail these days? Not often at all and in many instances you pay a fee for that service. While it may be fine to skip the paper invoices, where did that savings to the company go? It went right into the exorbitant salaries of the executives and the shareholders. Self checkouts have saved companies billions, maybe even trillions. Prices continue to rise though because the wealthy not only need that money, but deserve it too.

When job cuts are made at an organization, who benefits? I heard one woman on the news the other day saying she hoped the savings being found in the Education department would be passed on to the states. I had to laugh. Those savings are going to fund tax cuts for the rich. How is it possible that billionaires many times over care anything about the poor? The poor are there for them to take advantage of, and to be afraid of. After all, the extremely wealthy, with a few exceptions, believe that every one is just like them. Willing to do anything to set themselves up with so much money they never have to worry again. Because they are ruthless, they believe everyone else is too. They live in a world where everything is cut-throat, get the other guy before he gets me. The fact that there’s a whole world out there who simply want to work for a living, have enough to raise their family and have a little fun once in a while, is alien to them. That money might not be the be all and end all of life is deeply offensive to them. People who want more from life than money are considered losers. They are to be stamped out because without the masses working as hard as they can funneling money into the hands of the few, how can they amass their enormous fortunes?

There’s talk about this new return to the greatness of America putting humans on Mars. Just what kind of a place is Mars going to be? It looks extremely likely that everyone will work one hundred and twenty hours a week until they are used up, then cast aside to make room for the next guy to make his sacrifice. Slaves to the ultra wealthy. A few women, slaves as well, will be there for servicing the men. I wish all the ones who want that kind of a world would just go on and go. If you can’t make it to Mars, set up some space stations somewhere in between. When you look back down to Earth maybe you’ll see us losers waving good-bye.

This is one App you do not need

Recently I’ve heard advertisements on radio and television for an insurance company app that ‘lets you prove you’re a good driver’. OK, I guess some people would take that bait. You might know you’re a good driver if you don’t have accidents, or haven’t had a ticket for a moving violation in several years.

But who would be foolish enough to download an app that tracks everything your car does. How long you idle, your speed, and believe me, applications these days also know the posted speed limit. My company uses a similar application to ‘watch’ it’s employees who drive company cars. In case no one else has noticed, most Americans don’t drive the speed limit, either in the city or on the interstate, or along county backroads. I know because I’m the one causing the bottle neck on two lane roads by driving the speed limit. Putting an app like this on your phone is like getting your insurance agent to drive with you everywhere you go. And while they’re tracking the car, are they also tracking where you go? Do you stay out late at night, or go through areas of town with a high crime rate? I’m sure that would bump up your insurance payments if you did. Say you get a job promotion and now have to park downtown. Up goes your insurance because the chances your car will be vandalized have just shot up from when you parked in an open lot in the suburbs. Did you want to spend your hard earned raise on insurance? Once you get the app, I suspect it will be very difficult to get rid of it, possibly penalties and fees will be involved

I strongly suspect that putting this application on your phone will NOT lower your insurance rates, and the chances your rates will go up are much greater than they will go down. More importantly, if we aren’t careful every move we make is going to be watched and recorded by somebody. Fakebook and Giggle already have us pegged, it’s a trend that needs to stop. Just don’t do it.