Window To The Visible World
As a child I used to dream of being able to look through my bedroom window and seeing what ever I could imagine appearing on the other side of the glass – a person, a scene, another world. As an adult, I can now ask my computing devises just about anything and up will pop a digital window which will display what ever I hoped to see. Not quite as romantic as what I imagined as a child but it does give me access to information, sounds, pictures and moving pictures almost instantly and all in the palm of my hand. The dream of the naive child has almost become the reality of the adult.
And to think, that as a child and adolescent, I would take a thousand questions to bed with me, each and every day. Questions that no one and nothing could answer and which are now resolved within a matter of seconds – minutes at most! For example: How old is the musician I just listened to? Where was that actor born? Is a company independent or owned by a multinational? How many bees in a beehive? What does a red gum look like? And does anyone know what happens after death?
I don’t know if this ability to see, hear or answer things instantly is a good or bad thing for our youth. I do know however, that I sleep easier now – not haunted by questions I haven’t been able to answer or by facts I haven’t been able to access. :)