Computers

     Well, the article today is really hitting home --- COMPUTERS!  It seems today they’re everywhere.  You can’t buy groceries, shoes, clothes, or just about anything without having it rung up by a computerized terminal.  And have you been to a fast food restaurant lately?  I mean INSIDE, not through the drive-thru, and watched them take your order?  They don’t even have to ring it up!  They push the button that says HAMBURGER and it registers, along with the price.  They press the button SMALL DRINK, FRIES, whatever!  It all registers.  They don’t even have to know the prices on anything.  Then they press another button and BINGO here’s your tendered cash and then your correct change. 

     Kids are getting jobs today --- while they are in school --- and they can’t make change for a dollar!  I’m not jumping the educational system at this point (although we all know there are considerable changes that could be made).  What I am hinting at is:  it seems to me that the computerized age is swiftly carrying our youth in that direction.  Young people are growing up without the benefit (or evidently the NEED) to THINK!  Everything is pushing a button, getting results --- DON’T THINK!

     Many of you probably remember growing up without television (heaven forbid!) and listening to radio programs or playing games as a family.  Things that made you THINK and get involved with others.  Today kids respond negatively if they are told to read a book.  READ!  “Why not wait for the movie (or video)?”is their response.  The avenue of using our brains by means of reading --- imagination --- has almost disappeared.  Do you know what one of the fastest growing areas of education is today?  Computer training: NO not the understanding of computers and how and why they work, but specialized training in specific PROGRAMS, so they will know the right buttons to push.

     I remember having individuals come into my office to apply for a job and one of the first things out of their mouths was that they knew how to program a computer.  That was great!  But I would have to tell them that we don’t do ANY programs with our office operations, but could they follow directions and push the right buttons?  Believe it or not that was sometimes more of a problem than you might think.

     I’d be the first to admit I’m not ready to give up my computer or my other computerized gadgets, but I think we ought to look closer at some of these aspects.  I recall a “picture of the future” I saw in a magazine years ago.  The human was one big round body with a single L-O-N-G arm and ONE finger.  That’s all he needed to push the right button.  Sobering thought isn’t it?

     Yet, some of the very interesting things that many enjoy today are movies.  Have people forgotten where these movies come from?  There are creative imaginations of the people who can THINK beyond just pushing some buttons.  The minds of some of these writers are almost impossible to conceive where they could have possibly “thought up” the stories that we watch as movies on the big screens, but we are willing to pay MILLIONS, sometimes BILLIONS to enjoy watching them.

     What about the new products and processes that are becoming available for us to use each day?  People with marvelous thinking abilities are needed to continue to provide these wonderful things.  We must prepare our young people today to be able to THINK in aspirations of reaching the stars of the future!  We don’t want to create a long armed, one fingered generation for the future.

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"If you learn the simple, basic things,

the more complicated will become easier."