So, this is a picture of a wave of Hurricane Ike topping a 5 story building in Cuba. .
Let me say this first, Cuban buildings fall down on their own, Hurricane Ike will be a disaster.
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But this got me thinking...
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1) Are Hurricanes worse or are we just so much better at instantly sharing pictures and stories about them? My guess is that our information sharing has gotten exponentially better regardless of Hurricane growth or not.
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So that really pushed another question. 2) How will this instant communication effect future generations? Really.
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We all know that a story of millions starving in Africa doesn't move us as much as if we watched the story of a single child who has nothing to eat. We (as individuals) can't really effect hordes of people or issues, but we can react to specific events.
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Take the Tsunami a couple of years back, American private citizens raised billions of dollars for Tsunami relief. It was a singular event that we could understand.
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On the other hand, the hurricanes that keep hitting and hitting and hitting Haiti, those we don't really respond to. I know that, for me, sending money or relief down there is a wasted cause. Whatever the government doesn't steal will be used to rebuild and another Hurricane will just hit it again next week or next month or (at the latest) next year. That sounds heartless, and I am embarrassed to say it, but it is kind of the truth.
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Heaven knows that we all say, "Why do they live there?" when Hurricane John Doe hits the Florida Keys for the umpteenth time. I mean, those people can afford to move.
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So does instant communication make people feel more connected or more removed?
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hmmmm
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I think it makes us more connected to our group of friends (take for instance the fact that I still feel connect to Bridget and her daughter - even though I haven't seen Sydney in person since she was in diapers). We can stay in touch or at least aware of each other easily.
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But... I think it makes us feel more removed from the big problems (wars, famines, economic collapse). There is an endless supply of big problems around the globe. We respond to problem events. And we respond to individual charity causes we support. But the whole world has too many problems to tackle, and you have to ignore some or go crazy.
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In the olden days (the days of yore) people helped each other in their village or their church. Maybe instant communications will create other villages or churches that we help out.
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During the Tsunami, a friend of Ed's was working in Thailand teaching (he still is actually). In addition to sending money to the Red Cross and all, we sent some money to him to help rebuild the school he teaches at school. I am going to hope that that is the upside of all of this. With instant communications your community expands, and you usually rise to help your community.