«

»

What are we doing today that will one day baffle us?

I was shocked to recently find out that my grandma smoked cigarettes while she was pregnant with my mom. I couldn’t believe it. “You really used to smoke when you were pregnant?? Didn’t anyone know how bad an idea that was? But that was only like 60 years ago! Wow.”

It reminded me of the fact we must also be doing something today that we’ll one day look back on and be like, “what the hell were we thinking?” And sadly, I actually feel like we’re probably doing way more than one. I’ve had this exact conversation with friends several times, and ultimately the conversation always ends with us shaking our head in resignation. “O well. It’s definitely true, but what’re we really gonna do about it?”

There’s no real way to know exactly what these things are, but I’ve got some (perhaps obvious) guesses:

  • Something about cell phone signals being close to the brain
  • Our postures are all fucked up from computers and laptops, as the hotly debated “people staring at computers project
  • All these prescriptions
  • Our eyes staring at screens too often
  • Energy consumption

I can already imagine the conversation with my grandchild. “Grandpa Jesse, did you really used to put a computer on your lap and use your fingers to type?? Didn’t anyone know how bad that was for your wrists, eyes, and spine? But that was only 60 years ago! Wow.”

So, what are we doing today that will one day make us say, “wow what the hell were we thinking?” Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

Comments

Powered by Facebook Comments

  • Ken Martone

    More importantly, will we have the wisdom to change when we discover better alternatives to our ways?

  • Alex

    I swear my legs are starting to feel texts before I get them. I always keep my phone on vibrate and recently I’ve noticed time to time my leg will feel like it’s vibrating from a text I’ll pull my phone out and bow! I receive a text. Not happy about it, specially when my phone clearly has a cancer corner.

  • Dangles

    I get that too. It’s called “phantom texting.” But in your case, Al, it could also be your pocket vibrator

  • Stephanie

    I think it will have to be about the food that we eat. The food we are eating now is obviously killing us. I think we are just tapping the surface with food labels. The average size shoe for a female when I was growing up was size 7. My daughter is 13 and wears a 9. Many of her friends wear 10 or 11.

Get Adobe Flash playerPlugin by wpburn.com wordpress themes