2010 Yobabytes Part 1

Uncle Bubba has been scarce lately. I’ve looked for him often but to no avail. This usually says more about me than Uncle Bubba; it usually means that I have become too inadvertently distracted and time has slipped by. So this morning, when I wasn’t expecting any company, there was Uncle Bubba on my doorstep. Like the father of the prodigal son, I welcomed him with open arms and apologized for staying away for so long. In typical Uncle Bubba fashion, he saw no need for a fuss and wondered aloud at why I make such a big ta-do about nothin’.

I think it was no coincidence that he showed up at a point when I was thinking about the new year... 2010 of all things. Didn’t y’all think we’d be farther along in things by now? I thought we’d be living a lot more like the Jetsons, with computerized automation machines in our homes and we’d be all flying jet powered cars. Anyway, at these few days after Christmas it’s hard to not ponder what the new year might bring and feel somewhat simultaneously nostalgic. In chatting with Bubbie over a couple of hot cups of coffee, we agreed that in contemplation of the state of our union and the state of our society, one doesn’t get all warm and fuzzy. In the words of Uncle Bubbie, “I look around and wonder what the hell is going on? We’re goin’ to hell in a hand basket!” Its not difficult to echo his sentiment recognizing that causality postulates that we now know too much. Yobabytes of information! We know so much that most of what we know has little to do with relevance or truth.

Think about our sources of information; gossip, cell phones, smart phones, text messaging, email, TV, computers, magazines, newspapers, books, and the internet. There is so much data available to us, it has become information overload. And most news is useless. For example, why do we need to know that an 80 year old lady was hit by a car in a town 200 miles away? Because it was a hit and run and they are searching for the perp, or there is some purpose as to safety and a lesson learned perhaps? But that is seldom the case; if you pay attention, much of the “news” is just random stories with no relevance to the betterment of the community. Today we heard that a trailer burned down on Christmas leaving a family homeless, but no information on how to help them. So much of the news is just story after story of bad news with no relevance to society’s advancement.

Think again about our sources of information; gossip, cell phones, smart phones, text messaging, email, TV, computers, magazines, newspapers, books, and the internet. Each one of these items documents information originating from a human source with an innate agenda. There is nothing wrong with that; its only important to remember that nothing is truly objective. Its been proven that most “experts” on any media outlet is more than likely an expert in talking for money, not necessarily an expert on any one subject. In Bubbie’s view, we’d test a well to make sure that our livestock are not drinking contaminated water, yet we’ll so eagerly draw our news from contaminated sources poisoning our minds. As his mama always told him, “There’s 2 sides to every story; and somewhere in the middle is the truth.”