Gone Are the Days

I've been thinking about change this morning. I like to joke with people that I don't belong in this technological age even though I know I do. I guess I say that because I miss real conversation. I enjoy the old fashion concept of two people sitting in rockers on their porch talking til the sun goes down. So it got me thinking...what else has changed? What else do I miss or think is interesting enough to write about because it has changed?

Here goes:

Gone Are the Days:

• No more peanut butter and jelly (or fluff for that matter) sandwiches sent to school due to too many kids having peanut allergies.
• Fewer long phone conversations because you can get more to the point with a text message.
• Walkmans are now iPods.
• Bye bye to the days when drinking whole milk was good for you...now we're told to drink thin, see-through skim.
• Pens -- keyboards.
• Fear of getting on a plane because it might crash has been replaced with fear of getting on a plane because it might be taken over by terrorists...which as a result has changed so many policies about getting on a plane.
• Good old fashion letter writing is not as desirable as sending an email.
• Facebook is a substitute for real connection and meeting for coffee.
• Stevia or Truvia are more natural than sugar.
• One of a kind dogs and sheep -- cloned dogs and sheep.
• Invetro twin or triplet babies -- invetro octuplet babies.
• Books into e-books.
• Print magazines into e-zines.
• Finally, I just heard on Oprah yesterday that Dr. Oz is suggesting that doctors switch from ties to bow ties (in order to prevent the spread of germs when they bend down and check patients). Now what is the world coming to...bow ties?!

This is just a spontaneous list I created of noticeable changes from even 10-20 years ago. I'm a proponent of change and growth...but that doesn't mean I don't miss the way things used to be. It doesn't mean I don't evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of change.

King Solomon professed there is nothing new under the sun and I am bound to agree. Even as the world slowly transforms into a technological dome of "connection" and immediacy, we are just finding ways to do what's already been done...and in doing so I believe in some circumstances we might be slipping away from the very things we are trying to create...