There's just something about a
letter, a board game, a polaroid picture. Something that reaches into your
heart and tugs on a deeply rooted nostalgia. Heck, even opening a classic
Coca-Cola™ bottle causes this
feelings to bubble up. These older activities, methods, and objects bring to us
a longing for what is now considered a quaint way of living.
This concept is fresh on my mind
because I've had a pen pal for awhile now and have recently made a new one.
Ironically, however, I met both of these people on the internet and, thus far
in my life, have not met either in person. Interestingly enough, though, is
that despite our cheaper and easier ability to communicate instantaneously via
the internet, we still feel drawn to this archaic idea of sending and receiving
post. There's something oddly appealing about this concept, and I'm forced to
wonder: does this feeling exist simply because we dipped our toes in that era,
but never needed to actually dive in? Technology developed with us, and we
consequently didn't necessarily experience writing letters, playing board games
(as opposed to video games), or taking photos on a film camera. These things go
back to our earliest memories, but have long since been expired. Does the
generation before us feel the same nostalgia for these things as we do? Or are
they happy to see an improvement, as they've dealt long enough with the hassles
of these outdated methods? What about the generation below us? Do/will they
experience this nostalgia for these things, or will they instead feel this way
for, say, a traditional video game controller? In other words, is the nostalgia
we feel for these activities innate in the activities themselves, or is it
assigned?
Conversely, each generation feels
some rush of excitement when speculating on what's to come. Such is the basis
of and a driving factor for the appeal of science fiction. We long for a future
that has flying cars, useful robots, and a knife that toasts bread as it
slices. This craving for what is to come is what creates demand for companies
such as Apple. People want the new, improved, and closer-to-the-future
technology. Yet, one can never actually acquire "the future
technology". That would make it present technology. We strive for the
future, because it's so tantalizing to us, and yet we will never be satisfied
when concepts that were once of the future suddenly become the present.
The
unfortunate truth is that both of these things, past and future, and
inaccessible. We can get tastes of them, previews or flashbacks, but we cannot
hold them. The human race is, for whatever reason, destined to forever
simultaneously and paradoxically want to reach the future and relive the past;
the present will seem lackluster in comparison.
The
foot on which we are standing will always feel sore to he who wants to take a
step.
Those
are my musings for now.
I'm
Michael, and this is my life.
