Monday, October 31, 2011
"Changes"
One thing that I always found unique about people is that we are constantly surronded by each other and are put in situations on a daily basis were we have to work with each other in many different ways. There has always been a common ground for most people and that is to live life and be comfortable while doing so. What I mean by this statement is that people know that they have to work in order to have a life style were they feel comfortable. and experience joy from their hard work. Money controls and runs everything around us and everyone that has ever worked a long day or provides for their family understands. Although, cash is king in mostly every circumstance, people like to help each other out because it feels good to make someones day easier. To a certain extent, there is not much of this going around in communities today. It is a different day and age and the connection between consumer and the provider is almost non existant. Times have changed and family run shops and bussiness such as the ones down the street that everyone can relate to have been replaced with big companies and organziations that supply all of our needs or goods that they make you think you need. Along with the change, it makes neighborhoods not as close and connected as it once was. Such as chatting with your neighboor in the corner store deli or getting your haircut at the barber, were if you were short a couple bucks they would help you out. These type of stores have been replaced with walmarts, supercuts and quickchecks. The amount of play dates with children has gone done due to the era of video games and children become obese from hanging out on the couch all day and not getting any exeercise. Children are not interacting with each other and are missing out on important life skills. Video game companies are controling some kids childhoods by making video games that are addictting to some kids. From an early age, we as Americans are taught to value the possessions that we have. This has been engraved in our minds since a young age because everything that you buy or have has been purchased at one time or another and hard earned money was spent on it. Times have changed and the days of interacting with each other in an close enviroment have been replaced with computers, big companies, other various circumstances that make world more high-tech, but sheilding our communities.
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I agree. In this day and age we have gone from relying on and looking forward to the social experience of shopping and interacting, to one that can be completely unsocial where we don’t even have to leave the house. This goes for many other interactions like you mentioned, play dates amongst children and to the extreme of possibly not even knowing your neighbors. In small towns, for example, where my parents live in North Jersey, they seem to be stuck in a twilight zone era or frozen time. They live in a town that literally has two traffic lights, 1 supermarket, and one corner deli that has been there for like 100 years. Everyone knows everyone. People say hello, wave, and yield to let you pull out of the parking lot and are always helping their neighbors out. These types of communities and social interactions are few and far between in many other towns. The convenience of having so many choices of where to shop and get your hair cut, really takes the personalization out of its interaction. The connections and communications are so random. I Like what you said, it really is “shielding our communities”.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the blog posted above, but I also believe that aside from shifts in affiliation from "mom and pop" stores to corporate entities, change is inevitable. Demographically we live in an area where our ties to small business are negligible and therefore our social ties towards each other may be different then lets say a community in Mississippi. The difference is that they may have a more small town vibe going on where as a community, they prop each other up a bit more. Ties are closer and are not alienated as much as heavily populated areas where large corporate entities flood the market as heavily. Just an example of the flipside of things but in time their transition will be complete and they will loose the play dates, the close neighbor like interactions, and small business too. It is an interesting to note
ReplyDeleteIt is very sad that everyone is being influenced by our neighbors or big companies and no one is aware of the situation. It is more sad when the population is increasing and more houses and roads are being built is affecting the community even more. I think we should change the situation by what we buy or starting a small conversation with someone.
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