In our last class we discussed the beginning of post modernism. Dr. Rog gave us a couple of dates that could be considered the beginning of post modernism. Dr. Rog mentioned that September 11th is considered by many to be the end of post modernism. We went on to discuss how different life is after September 11th and how life will never be the same again.
Honestly, I don’t get it. I come from what you would consider a middle class, suburban family (about as close to the average American as you can get). My life hasn’t changed one bit since September 11th. Sure, I may have to take my shoes off at the airport, big woop. That takes up about 30 seconds of my life. George Bush may be on TV claiming that today is a Red day or a orange day or a blue day or whatever other color. But lets be honest, does the color of the day truly affect your normal life. It’s not like on Red days they have metal detectors and cops with sniffing dogs outside malls, restaurants, or schools. I couldn’t tell you one noticeable difference between a red day and a yellow day. Unless your parents work in the government or the military, September 11th hasn’t changed the life of the average American at all.
I don’t want to be contradicting the class subject but as a CRITICAL media and cultural studies major I have to look at things critically. I don’t think you can put a title on a time period, such as post-modernism or generation X. Time flows together. Who is to say that just because someone is born in 1983 they are part of generation X but if they were born in 1984 they are not. Those two people will be living in the same period, going through the same fads and trends.
People say that the internet and computers are the start of another time period. But how can people say that? It’s not like everyone had a computer overnight. It took years and years for the internet and computers in our society to get to where we are today. Life didn’t change overnight. This was just one part of human’s technological advancement, no more signigicant than the creation of the wheel, discovery of electricity, or the creation of the printing press.
With all that being said, I think that for the first time in history we have the technology and ability to start a new time period. Nuclear war is the only way we could change life across the globe instantly. There is no other time in history could we change the world we live in instantly.
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I completely agree that sometimes it is difficult to understand just how much an event like 9/11 has effected us as a nation and also individually. If 9/11 or some even never happened how would our lives be different? We will NEVER EVER know! I can not imagine my life if my parents never got divorced or if I did not go to Rollins, or whatever life decisions I made. It is scary and incredible all at the same time. Inevitably all of our life choices affect us, but we will never be able to know how or to what extent because we didn't do the other thing, and the "other thing" never happened! Will we ever know if watching Sex and the City affected a decision to date someone or whether this homework post will dramatically affect some future action I do? It is very twilight zone, absurd and therefore very postmodern.
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