Anyone Got A Time Machine?

Living in the 21st century sure has it's advantages. I mean, look at everything we can do now! Cell phones have cameras, smart phones in general, YouTube and Facebook came out enabling a 'better way of staying connected now more than ever', human segway transporters (for people who who think walking just isn't cool enough), being able to order anything and everything online with a touch of your finger...like fast food even, GPS, e-readers, Skype. Basically our whole world revolves around computers and technology. Even some schools nowadays require that their students have laptops or iPads (and I'm talking about grade school). Also libraries filled with encyclopedias and books in general are starting to become a thing of the past. Am I complaining about all these techy advances we have now have in front of us at our disposal? No. Okay I lied, maybe a little. Is it so wrong that I would rather go back in time just a little bit? A time where books were actual books, not electronic books on e-readers? A time where we would have to solely rely on someones word alone upon meeting up somewhere for dinner, because we didn't have cell phones to text? Or what about a time where writing letters and calling people over the home phone was the only way rather than  our new-age emails, e-cards, and having text conversations through our phones ? I'm still happy to see that Hallmark is still business and that people do still send Christmas cards because if that ever dies out I'm going to be first in line for whenever a time machine gets invented (and at this rate with all that can be done in today's world, that may very well be sooner than we expect)
So I have a BlackBerry. Yes, a Blackberry. Yes that's okay, I'll pause for a minute here to let you laugh and get it out of your system. I love having one, always have. Even though Blackberry is suffering I still stay loyal. I have used an iPhone before, and I own an iPad so I am very familiar with how it works and all the features. I have also tinkered around on some of the Androids that are out there.All impressive for some reasons but I still love my BlackBerry the most. And an added bonus? The US government cannot monitor BlackBerry communication. Nope, nothin' wrong with that!
So anyways, I got a new BlackBerry the other day, thew fancy q10, it has the trusted old faithful keyboard that I love and the screen is all touch, sooooo navigating is done through the screen and there is no track pad. This part drives me crazy. (Thank goodness I still have the keyboard at least) It's not so much the fact that it's touch screen as I'm sure it's just a matter of getting used to it but it's just that it's too easy to accidentally touch something and make an error, send the wrong thing, delete in error etc...
It. Drives. Me. Nuts.
So although I love my phone, I wish I could go back even just a little to when phones only were used to make phone calls. Simplicity. We were fine back then and got everything done okay so I can't imagine us not being able to now. Or I'd even take pagers! Hahaha! Remember those things? I remember my Dad had one, and he would give us kids a legend of codes which would mean different things. So for example, if Mom needed Dad to call her when he was off work for a grocery list she would dial his pager and punch in a bunch of '4's. Awesome little weird way of communicating I think, but it did the job!
As I started writing today's post I began to think of all of our technological advances that we have made. Yes, some definitely are fantastic and make life much easier and more efficient, even some more eco-friendly. But some are just downright unnecessary and ridiculous and are only adding to the future laziness of our world, of our kids, of our kids kids, and their kids! How is that in a world where we have all this technology to stay connected, we are actually more disconnected now than ever? We have all these outlets for communication; text, Skype, emails, Facebook, Twitter, instant messaging, and basically just the ability to do everything online such as banking, dating, college diplomas and degrees, and ordering groceries even! All this to bring us closer, make things easier and more attainable or efficient, yet the human touch gap is narrowing as we speak. Sometimes I feel so lost amid all these new technological advances, and I'm doing my best to keep up and stay with it because if I don't blink quick enough, the world is going to take off without me.
If I may point out something funny, my parents struggle too - with even just text messaging. I probably shouldn't laugh at them because I may be in their shoes one day, but....I do. But they're definitely trying. My Dad has his BlackBerry and uses that okay, my Mom just got her very first cell phone last year (not a smartphone) and she is getting a bit better at text (it's still funny as hell when she uses it though. My mom thought 'lol' meant lots of love.....hmmm, I was wondering why she was always' laughing out loud' whenever she would text me telling me to drive safe or wish me a good vacation)
Now that I mention my Mom, it reminded me of a funny conversation I had last week with her. Well maybe not funny, but rather kind of sad actually. I was telling her how my generation is going to be the last of the already dying breed of domesticated, crafty, sweater-knitting grandmas. When all of today's young girls grow up to become little old ladies, not a damn single one of them are going to know anything about baking pies, knitting, sewing, pulling off making an entire homemade turkey dinner, or making jams and preserves. They won't even have actual photo albums to share with their grandchildren. Their memories and keepsakes will consist of Instagram selfies, Facebook and Twitter accounts. Their vocabulary will be full of stupid acronyms, and they wont be able to hold actual conversations. This goes for the grandpas too. Remember good ol' art of conversation? Something that should come natural to us but is becoming less used and people are actually losing their skills of real one-on-one communication? This is something I come across more and more every day. Even finding someone with a good solid and confident handshake is quite a rarity.
It would be interesting to see for sure, and I'm sure my parents generation felt the same way about my generation growing up. Obviously things are going to change. People are going to change. Things will advance and change the world - it's a given. But sometimes I think some things just need to be left as they are, and stay true to their origin, especially when it comes to the humankind and keeping the human touch alive.