Dumbing Down

I woke up too early this morning and couldn’t go back to sleep. So I started watching videos on my weather app.

The devastation in Maui is beyond belief. But that’s only one area of so many throughout our whole world being destroyed by wildfires, floods, tornadoes, and drought. Anyone else have a creepy feeling like it’s another worldwide “event” all over again?

At a young age, my generation was taught how to use a map. We knew where we lived, including the city, county, and state. We could locate our state on a map. We could locate our country on a globe, along with its many other countries. We could use a road map to find our way to and from designated locations.

We also learned the difference between a storm watch and a warning and what to do.

The last video I watched was on how to prepare for a storm. In this video, the weather person said, “It’s okay if you don’t know where you live…just pop your address into a search engine and familiarize yourself with the area.”

Does anyone besides me have trouble with this?

Then two pictures appeared in the video. On the left were parts of a taco scattered on the white background. The second picture was a fully made taco.

The first picture illustrated a weather alert watch. The ingredients for a storm (taco) are present. A warning is a fully made taco.

Really? We have to use taco illustrations for adults to understand weather alerts? And no…it’s not okay that you do not know where you live.

Our world is being dumbed down in so many ways. You hardly have to pay attention to see it. It is just so disappointing.

I miss landlines. I miss Encyclopedia Brittanica on home bookshelves. I miss sitting around with family in friends without personal phones in every hand or pocket. I miss the life I once knew so many years ago when I was a young girl. I feel sad for kids today who won’t be able to comprehend the freedoms we actually had in my youth compared to today.

Technology hasn’t freed us. It’s dumbed us down and holds us captive.

Andi