In this tech savvy world it’s hard to know what a minimalist perspective is. I mean you have your iPads and your Android Phones.You have your Smart Phone Apps and so much more. Hardly anyone these days can exist without some sort of technology. It seems that people are constantly staring at their phones. Hardly a second goes by without someone texting and or going to get the latest updates.
Can you survive an emergency?
In this tech savvy world, can you survive in an emergency?
I’m not talking about an emergency where the wi-fi goes down for two seconds. No, I’m talking about an actual emergency. I’m talking about an emergency where someone is in a life and death situation? Would any of us know how to handle a hurricane or tornado?
A horrible devastation
Last year Hurricane Sandy hit us in a big way. Some of us got hit more than others, but still the storm did some major damage. Some were without power for several days. Some were left without power for over several weeks and months. Some are still cleaning up the mess, New Jersey is one major example. New jersey is still cleaning up the damage, more than a year after the impact.
With all of the severe weather that is still going on it got me thinking one very important question. Do we have the knowledge and survival skills it takes. In our society, technology has blinded us in a major way. We can get weather updates every five minutes in order to keep us prepared. But is that all there is to it? When I was younger we learned things such as CPR and creating a fire without the use of a lighter. We learned all of these wonderfully valuable things, but has technology thrown that all out of the window? Has all that we learned in boy and girl scouts been replaced with media savvy applications?
Emergency medical teams.
I saw this thing on the news the other day where one college was promoting drills for actual emergencies. They would teach their students what they needed to know in order to survive. The students would learn what to do if a friend lost consciousness. Or if someone lost partial or even total use of their arms. I was very intrigued by what the college and the emergency medical team was doing. It was promoting a way to save lives and teaching the students how they can be involved. It wasn’t an optional program either, you had to sign up.
A computer application won’t be able to save your best friend’s life. An Android phone won’t be able to administer CPR. I know most of you realize this, but I say this all for effect. Though there are many great things about technology, there are many harmful things about it too. It is keeping our society from knowing the basics. It’s placing less of an importance on actual communication and survival, and more of an emphasis on a virtual world.
When it comes to survival skills, why do we still think that a virtual world can save us?
