Modern Times

The other day I was playing Family Feud with my daughter on her Kindle when the subject of Charles Chaplin came up. My daughter had no clue who Chaplin was. I tried to explain about the silent movie era and his signature outfit (baggy pants, small overcoat, giant shoes). In the end we thought it might be better to rent the movie Modern Times.

At first the kids were really resistant to the idea of a silent movie. Boring. Weird. But then it turned out that both of them very much enjoyed it. The title appeared kind of laughable to them. What? A black and white movie with hardly any sound and talking at all. What is modern about that?

What would Chaplin make of this world of computers, I-pods, I-phones, and wide screen TVs? Times have changed yet I feel that we are still fighting similar battles when it comes to technology. How do we deal with the daily onslaught of images, shared links, the constant stream of information coming at us? The majority of our workforce must no longer stand at a conveyor belt, and the idea of being force fed soup by a machine seems ludicrous. Instead we spent endless hours in front of screens being force fed information...

Here I am at my little desk sewing dolls by hand, but in order to sell them I must use modern technology and understand how to use it to sell my wares. I feel there is this huge clash between peoples'  yearning to go back to a simpler life while we all have become totally dependent on electronic devices we are hooked up to 24-7 .