Is Knowledge the New Black?

With all of the new gadgets on the market today, one has to wonder, is it now cool to be smart? Throughout the past decades, technology has expanded beyond belief. The old saying, "with knowledge comes power" is long overdue for an upgrade. I think the new saying should be "with technology comes power". The development of our knowledge can be seen all across the board.

Throughout time, the older generation of society has often looked down upon the fads of the younger generation. I think that texting is our generation’s version of Elvis Presley. Texting and other forms of digital social interaction have enabled us to be able to relay information so quickly to one other. It allows us to be our own author every single day, even if what we have to say is seemingly unimportant. Our generation has been given a key to opportunity. It is easier than ever to be able to share our creativity. In the 1980’s and ‘90s, the fads were bright noisy colors, floppy hair, and baggyclothes. The television shows thatwere aired were about being popular and fitting in. A lot of the shows were about parties and social interaction. I think that social interaction is such a common thing today that people are striving for more. Normalcy in the 21^st century is about taking the unusual and making it usual. The best example I can think about has been the evolution of reading.

While this may still not be the ideal style, the nerd trend has really started to pick up. The strive to learn and be smart has always been looked down upon in pop culture until recently. Through the evolution of technology came the evolution of the human mind and is bringing an even smarter generation.

The original video games are being looked at as primitive. PacMan was once a revolutionary concept but now it is seen as a simple game ofchasing dots. Today, the“Average Joe” is able to make a ton of money off of video games just by creating an App and posting it in the App store. Money has become an incentive to learn how to create, well more so today because technology has made it so anyone with the right amount of patience can learn.

Reading plays a big role in technology, not just when it comes to learning new software. Style has evolved alongside technology and gadgets are becoming the new purse. Take this commercial for example:

Today, there are so many ways to get your hands on a book and they don’t even involve getting out of bed. It is possible to download something within minutes and starting up on the latest novel. I have heard the saying, “reading is sexy” lately and it sounds like music to my ears. Growing up with a book constantly on me, it was not exactly the coolest thing. The media and popular TV shows gave most kids an image of what cool was. It was thought that skateboards, loud music, and spiky hair were the perfect ingredients to being cool. Movies and TV often portrayed the “bad boy” who was “too cool for school” to be the hero. Now, it is a completely different story and books are the front-runners of cool.

Learning new things and reading more and more usually means that you are the owner of some new gadget and what’s cooler than that? Who would have thought that sitting down and reading a book would be an idea of a good time? I always hear people say that journalism is a dying art form and that just makes me laugh and shake my head because journalism and writing is taking on an entire new meaning. It isn’t dying, itis getting a makeover.

eReaders and the internet are making reading so much more enjoyable. It’s interactive, it’s pretty, and it’s easy. Anyone has the power to create and it’s free. Technology has brought on an entire new idea of pop culture. It involves being smart and sleek and being in the know – the know about the New York Times Best Seller’s List.