The Information Age

I have written on this topic before or rather on the topic of technology, but every once in a while I see something that sparks a reaction, in this case that reaction has to do with “speed.” No, I am not referring to the popular amphetamine! There is also a humorous irony to what you are about to read about the speed that “information” travels these days, suggesting perhaps that this is not always a good thing, except for this bit on info to follow, which can be lumped into that ever-popular social media catchall – “Human Interest” – the most all-inclusive content out there. So, I am writing a story that “disses,” in a way, technology or technological capabilities that are now available to many people, but without those available technologies, this piece could not be written. I’ll let that sink in for a moment!

I began reading a news story on Wednesday evening January 24th at around 9:30 PM, about the NBA’s Golden State Warriors first game back after the loss of one of their assistant coaches, “Deki,” who sadly passed away unexpectedly from a heart attack at a team dinner the week before. He was 46. The short entry on my feed spoke of a pre-game ceremony before the game began at 7PM. I had not heard about this, so I decided to do a little digging. By 9:45 I had at my fingertips no less than four articles from the likes of ESPN, Washington Post, ABC News, and CBS Sports, explaining who “Deki” was (Dejan Milojevic), video clips of Coach Steve Kerr’s moving tribute, along with background information on the teams, the players dealing with the loss, and the game played in San Francisco against the Atlanta Hawks, won by the Warriors (134-112). By 9:57 PM, I had done my research, and typed up about two hundred words of notes. I would love to take credit for this achievement, you know something like: “Because of my acute mental awareness and my innate ability to “grasp at straws, “or something along those lines, this is really all about the available technology at my disposal (for a moderate cost) and the speed at which the above “information” is gathered and disseminated in some way or other to be consumed for a variety of uses. It only took less than two hours for all those stories to be written and posted to the Web.

All of this got me thinking about what the “media” were doing 100 years ago in 1924. Did they have an equivalent “epiphany” about the speed at which information was travelling back then, compared to, let’s say,1824!? The first “telegraph” was 20 years away, and the first message sent on that by Morse was: “What hath God wrought.” Profound words indeed. Of course, this technology changed the way people communicated and was the precursor to many more sophisticated technologies over the years. By 1928, the first television broadcast ushered in a new era of mass communication of news and entertainment, although it would not really take hold in the US until after WWII, and really ramp up by the mid 1950s. While thinking about this, a few questions came to mind. Are we taking this ability to access information this quickly, that most people in the world have access to, for granted? What, if anything, are we gaining because of this ability? What are we losing? I certainly wish I had answers to these questions, but whenever I sit down to think about all this, all I can come up with are more questions.

Los Angeles 2024