When Technology Should Go...

I listen to the John Tesh Radio Show during the weeknights.  I love him and his "Intelligence for your Life" program.  He has some truly wonderful ideas, introduces some great news and thought provoking realities, and generally helps to keep you more informed about life while you are on the go.

The other night, the topic of discussion was technology and our brains.  According to multiple source, technology is actually making us stupider.  Yes, I said it:  STUPIDER.  And for a number of reasons: multi-tasking gone wrong, reprogramming our brains, and general lack of entire thought proceses.

After listening to his show, I was appauled and decided to look for more evidence.  The New York Times wrote and article about it, providing information to all three of the above listed categories. 

Remember how you used to have to read an entire newspaper or book to find information, or have actual conversations with people to learn about them?  The internet is ruining that for us and all the evolutionary / learned traits we have acquired as a result.  For hundreds of years we trained our brains to recognize, sift-through, critique, and analyze the written word and general information.  Now, we don't even look past the first page of Google (or, let's be real, the first three options really) when we search for something.  If we can't find the answer instantaneously, we complain that it doesn't exist or that it's "too hard" or "not there".  We stopped communicating with one another and resort to the safety on non face-to-face interaction or the art of conversation.  Half of people growing up now can't even write legibly or read cursive because they're fingers are too glued to keyboards and iPad tablets.  Literally, we are training ourselves to de-evolutionize and thereby training ourselves and our next generations to be STUPIDER!!!

I even heard of a school that gave every kindergardener an iPad.  Why?  What about the mere principles of hand-eye coordination, motor skills and learning to hold a pencil?  Even the very premise of learning how to color inside the lines and trace letter with a pencil are skills that are so elementary and critically vital that our sudden and blind eagerness to jump into technology is going to back to bite us in butt so deeply that we will have gotten ourselves into a devistating hole from which there is truly not return.  We are encouraging backward progress and all the while with a stupidly wide grin on our faces.

Someday, people will pay me the big bucks because technology will fail and I will be the only one of few who knows how to still write with pen and paper.  Laugh for a second, but it will be a sad day when that time actually comes.  And it might be here sooner than you think.

CPR - Y?

At school today we had "CPR" Training, for all the teachers involved in sponsoring sports and after school activities.  I wasn't sure what to expect, but the 2-2.5 hour class ended up being extremely interesting.  We learned CPR and the "Heimlich" Maneuver.


Having never learned CPR, there were a lot of informational tid-bits that I didn't know prior to today.  For example, apparently they change the protocol for CPR every 5-10 years.  No, the actual process doesn't change, but little things can.  Like, for example, it is now customary to use a barrier between your mouth and the other person's mouth if such a barrier is available.  Why?  Simple put, with all the different diseases (think Aids, Hepatitis, etc) having a barrier between your mouths protects both parties.  Now, granted, since most CPR is done within family, you probably already know the ins-and-outs of your family members, so it's not so vital, but, nonetheless, that is one change.  Another, is that the number of pushes on the person chest changes.  Right now it's 30.  30 presses, 2 breaths, repeated 5 times.  According to our fire chief / instructor, they (the CPR Gods) are debating moving the number of chest compressions up from 30 to 50, which would change procedure from 30 compressions / 2 breaths, to 50 compressions / 2 breaths.  Interesting.


I also learned some cool things, like:  How to do the Heimlich maneuver, or that the Heimlich family is suing for royalties, so they have "unofficially" changed the name to something basic like "Choking Procedure", or that if you're doing CPR on a child aged 1-8 that you use only 1 hand instead of 2 during the chest compressions, and finally, the entire reason we do CPR is to keep Grandpa "away from the light," as our instructor so comically explained.  


Honestly, I highly recommend the class for every person.  Apparently in Washington State it is required in school that everyone learn the procedure, so they are the state with the highest number of citizens versed in CPR.  Therefore, should you ever decide to have a heart attack or become unconscious, I highly recommend getting yourself and your heart over to Washington State.  Otherwise, best of luck, and, although I am "trained" now, I would just prefer that you keep breathing on your own.  Thanks!