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On Sunday March 7, Javier Miranda V. wrote the following in response to a message by Bob H.: >I highly object to your judgement about computers not being part of real >life. Just because they didn't exist when you were a kid doesn't make >them >less real. When your great-grandfather was a kid there were no cars! >That >doesn't mean that they are not as real to you as the horse-and-buggy. > Don't inflict on others the concept that "life" is only what "you" >think it >is, dude. > I think Javier could have done without the sarcistic "dude" salutation, but I agree with him that technology is quite fundamental in determining what constitutes "life" or "living." And this is at times unfortunate, as Bob H. points out. I can reconcile, I believe, their two points of view. Evidence of Javier's assertion is that Generation X was raised on personal interaction with screens (TV, computer, etc.) The generation is pigeonholed (probably incorrectly) as "slackers," etc. I think a more accurate portrayal is something like "withdrawn." It is a generation that has to grapple with the conflicting messages that they are the first generation in a while to face a more bleak economic outlook than that of their parents, yet they grew up in a culture of (fictitious) "choice", and entitlement, as Peter Sacks so aptly points out in his book "Generation X Goes to College." There is a growing sentiment that people spending so much time on computers have lost the art of personal face-to-face interaction, a point I think Bob H. would agree with. Such is life. Not to let earlier generations off the hook, "Boomers" and the Cold War conservative generation who grew up worshipping the automobile and suburubia are sealed off from others in the journey-to-work/shop/recreate/etc. They grew up believing that ". . .your car is your image." Talk about selfishness: The automobile has done at least as much to promote spatial balkanization than computers. But in the post modern world, "life" with both of the above mentioned technologies is, in fact, "living." Billions of dollars of corporate marketing make sure of that. We dehumanize others when we drive to the strip shopping centers, because we relate to them as moving vehicles more than we relate to them as human beings. But, we are living as we do this. We relate to each other in cyberspace, via our TV and computer screens, often with more thoughtfulness than we do when we are face-to-face with other humans, especially strangers. That is the post modern nature of living. What does this mean for music? That is for each of us to decide. I would only suggest we understand the structural imperatives of technology, especially the flow of the money, and the role that the quest for profit-maximization plays in setting the parameters of "life" or "living." I personally regret having bought MIDI stuff, and am having more fun making imperfect improvised real-time loopings, and making mistakes with my bass when recording in live trio and quartet settings. Such is life. ================================================================ Dr. Michael S. Yoder Assistant Professor of Geography, Coordinator of Urban Studies Department of Social Sciences Texas A&M International University Laredo, TX 78041 U.S.A. Telephone: (956)326-2634 Office; (956)326-2464 FAX E-Mail myoder@tamiu.edu Web Page: http://tamiu.edu/~myoder/ ================================================================ "English ideas about property have given us both the Bill of Rights and the industrial slum." (Archibald C. Coolidge, Jr.)