Reset Buttons

There have been many articles, studies, blogs, opinion pieces, and peer reviewed research on the dangers of the over abundance of technology that we all are constantly bombarded with.  For the most part, I dismiss a lot of this.

Has technology changed our lives?  Absolutely.  That is undeniable.  I just imagine how different my middle school and high school years might have looked had social media existed.  Thankfully Facebook didn't even come around until my senior year of college!  Its bad enough to reminds me of the immature whining I did early on on a platform with only a few friends, but I can't imagine the awkwardness of growing up with that in my youth and naivety of even younger years.  This is something that young people will adapt and grow into as they age however, and ultimately it'll work itself out as these things always do.

What I think is more damaging is the 'reset' button in games, the neat tidy endings of movies, and the feeling that any decision can be undone, even if its a drastic action needed.  You don't like how a video game is going?  Just reset it or go back to the last level.  Don't appreciate how your Sims have turned out?  Well then just drown one in a pool and get a new one.  Tired of one family, go start another one.  Not that this idea is entirely new, people have up and left their lives one way or another since probably the beginning of time.  And in truth, there is nothing wrong, in principle, with making a major life decision to attempt to course correct, but it does become a problem when people begin to see only the most drastic of decisions as the only way to escape.

The odds of dying from suicide are 1 in 88 and the odds of a drug overdose (of any kind) are 1 in 96.  People talk about how we need to reduce senseless deaths and we do, but how much of those are because we are finding ourselves less and less equipped to handle things that happen in life.  Diagnosed anxiety and depression are at all time highs for a number of reasons as is drug use or abuse.  We, a societal we, are looking for a way to numb ourselves to our lives and the world and the craziness of it all.  So often we find ourselves in situations we didn't expect or don't know how to get out of, and sometimes the only way to get out of those is a drastic action, or even a small drastic action that builds over time.

The idea of the American Dream is thrown around a lot, and studies have shown that a middle class family can no longer afford this dream.  I do wonder at that though.  Is it because the American Dream is out of reach or because we expect too much from our American Dream?  If Bob and Karen can go to Cancun every year, the kids are in private school and do all the extra circulars, and their house is perfectly situated on THE golf course, does that mean something is wrong if we can't get that too?  Or does it mean that perhaps their dream is above and beyond what is normal to expect?  So often I hear those older than me talk about family trips in the back of a station wagon driving across the country or having to do without all the fancy gimmicks as kids but it made them proud of their parents and how hard they worked to give them what they had.  These days it feels as if the judgement for only being able to provide what we had as children that gave us wonderful family memories, is failing.  Life is more expensive now, but is it any less rich?  Or do we only feel less rich because its easy to compare what we don't have to others?

They say life is all about the little things, and truly it is.  The big moments are great, but few and far between.  Its the small, simple memories that make things joyful.  The fireflies at dusk on a summer night, that spontaneous hike to a waterfall, grabbing cheap and unhealthy take out after a long day, laughing with friends over the simple memories, and the content satisfaction of a job well done.  Perhaps its less about escaping where we are at, and more about noticing truly, the lives we are living, that will bring a perspective and joy that we are currently unable to grasp.