Social Commentary

$5.00 Per Gallon: What America May Pay For Auto Fuel If We Don’t Wake Up

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$5.00 Per Gallon: What America May Pay For Auto Fuel If We Don’t Wake Up

I’m not claiming to be neither an energy specialist nor a bona fide economist but I think the latest developments in the political turmoil in the oil-rich nations across the Atlantic and beyond deserve our careful consideration.

SAME OLD REFRAIN

When we examine the last 30-40 years of international politics as it relates to the effect of war/upheaval/et cetera in these petroleum capitals of the world—oil barrel prices and such often rise without warning or constraint. Each and every time we Americans gripe and seem surprised even though for the most part we’ve escaped true debilitating price hikes and status quo cost of automotive gasoline at the pumps in some European nations.

DENIAL AND RESERVATIONS

What year is it again? 2011. Why are we still so reliant on fossil fuels in general? I fear it is for a number of very classic human flaws. One is definitely just because it’s the way we’ve always done things, despite all the technological advances we’ve made in a matter of a few decades—we are still “dinosaurs” in how we view our transportation needs. Second, since it is the most common source of fuel, it somehow manages to be cheaper in general than the initial start-up investment it would take to delve into renewal sources of energy. Third, American politicians, corporate giants and phobic environmentalists and/or crotchety landowners are the biggest blockades to our progress as an innovative energy leader of a nation.

REALITY BITES

A combination of volatile social factors resulting after the Tunisian and Egyptian political fallouts are causing a ripple effect that won’t be truly sorted out for years to come, yet Americans are already grumbling about the gas pump prices as we fill up our thirsty tanks. How many times do we need to learn this lesson? Relying on fossil fuels is not the best long-term investment for America regardless of wherever we may source them from (international or domestic).

PRIDE: SWALLOW IT

Change is never easy. Especially when it concerns our cash flow and the request for more of it is laid out. There has to be a collective effort by corporations, energy industry innovators, politicians and American citizens to willingly go forward with real changes in our consumption of oil to give way to newer, more sustainable sources of power for our transportation (just one of our many energy usage needs: think electricity, home heating, cooking, etc). As for countries like Egypt and Libya, we need to allow them the space to work out their futures without being a puppet to their oil drenched strings.

RVSB

Facebook Phenomenon: Facing It

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FACEBOOK PHENOMENON

In the past week or so, I’ve read and seen a couple things regarding the Facebook phenomenon as I see it. If you missed the CNBC piece on Facebook entitled “Facebook Obsession” you can look up more information on it at http://www.cnbc.com/id/39618344/
In our local paper here, The Palm Beach Post, on February 4th there was an article printed entitled “Teen Crisis: To friend or unfriend Mom and Dad?” by Tracy Correa of with McClatchy Newspapers that can be seen at http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/a-teens-tough-call-should-i-friend-mom-1231753.html?cxtype=rss_news
It is amazing how Facebook has infiltrated our lives—of course, I am speaking about those who have signed onto Facebook as there are many who have chosen not to.

New Social Strand

Perhaps it’s the frenetic pace of live that we all collectively sense we are undergoing that makes a social networking program like Facebook alluring to use daily. I recall there was/is Friendster and MySpace but Facebook certainly seems to have gained much more popularity for a variety of reasons. One may be that socially-geared programs before it allowed for lessons to be learned in terms of being widely user-friendly. Second, many businesses have picked up on the advantage of signing up with a program like Facebook because of how it easily spreads the word to potential customers and allows for free or low-cost advertising.

World Wide Café Setting

I personally was one of the reluctant ones to jump on the Facebook bandwagon. It is well-documented in my statements on the internet and in my circle of family and friends that I distrust the rampant use of technology for sharing things like our financial information, consumer transactions and social networking through programs like Facebook or even a Google email account. Yet, ever the cautious hypocrite, I ended up on Facebook partly because I had just transitioned to a new season in my life as a first-time mother and CEO of the home (i.e. homemaker). After I got through the initial awkwardness of having a “facebook page” of my own, I felt like I was logging onto an international café every time I put in my password.

Mobile Café

The other feature that put Facebook in such a public forum was that somehow, sometime along the way, it found its way to applications on mobile phones. Before the catch phrase was “smart phone” and “apps”, you could not only log on your Google, Hotmail MSN or Yahoo email accounts, you could add Facebook on that refresh application option. It’s so easy to check on your “Newsfeed” on Facebook in your phone during the day. With a click you can “Like” or “Dislike” something or even go as far as to comment on something one of your colleagues put as their status.

Good for Us?

I still treasure a note that is sent through the now archaically-termed “snail mail” as I send my own hand-written sentiments to those I hold dear in this life. However, as texting was the new direct way to communicate without interrupting someone’s day too much, Facebook also serves as a non-confrontational but nice-casual way of saying hello or posting information that is either helpful or directed to a specific person or cause. For most adults, (ironic that Facebook was initially started for college students only), I think Facebook is like that corner of the playground we would all hang out at to shoot the breeze when were experiencing the waning years of our adolescence and we just wanted to bond through dialogue.

Facebook Fallout and Fallacy

The flip-side of Facebook’s social revolution is its effect on those in the college age range and younger. If you happen to read the above article link or have read something similar, it is increasingly obvious that many pre-teens and teenagers are now logged on to social networking programs like Facebook and find it to be an easier way of hiding their social experimentation or growth. This is a tricky, perilous predicament for both the youth and the parents thereof. Every generation has tried to hide their dalliances into adulthood from their parents—I’m not going to argue that recurring fact. But, that doesn’t mean that parents should just stand by and actively allow their minor-aged children to engage on Facebook or a site similar to it. The ramifications of posting our personal messages on social sites or simple email accounts are just beginning to show how they be a negative on our transactions later in life like when a graduate is seeking a new job. I would need to write another article posting altogether to pick apart why parents should just grit their teeth and be temporarily “disliked” for banning their children from this sort of unchaperoned internet social networking.

Future of Facebook?

I’m not a computer engineer, although I do have family and friends who are in touch with the waves of technology washing over our planet and they do share with me that there are always newer and better things ahead. Facebook definitely seems to have a hold on the 20s. 30s and 40s age groups out there and perhaps with that active group following and as long as those who run the company keep reinventing their social wheel—they’ll stick around in a Google-like fashion. Nevertheless, I still trust in the human connection as being not based solely on the screen(s) that I use to tap into a website, blog, email account or social networking website: we all need consistent care in other areas of our physical and spiritual senses to feel connecting to each other in an enduring fashion. Let’s hope we can keep that lesson going as we teach our children born into this amazingly instant-information age.

RVSB

Video/Computer Games: Drug of Choice

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After the blitz of the holiday season, I have several rants bouncing about in my rattled mind. Perhaps I’m a bit raw since I have an extremely active toddler (whose toddler isn’t active?), however, there must be some logic behind my recent annoyance with video/computer game usage in close proximity to my child and I.

Full disclosure that I do come from the generation that was enchanted by the Atari home game system, original Nintendo and Sega Genesis. As such, I was exposed to this form of entertainment and even at one point in time was familiar with some of the popular games. I’m not trying to be a hypocrite when being critical in the following diatribe.

Gaming has blossomed into a full-scale entertainment world of its own, complete with movie trailers that advertise the next best program. Obviously there have been some major advances in this medium since the 80s and 90s last century including connecting people throughout the world on the internet to play with each other on many different game options.

I’ve witnessed college students who are either engrossed heavily in a game system or just socially play during their down time (wish we had that downtime these days!). My husband and I lived and worked in the Washington DC area where we had friends that he would occasionly enjoy the latest NCAA or NFL football video game–and these were guys working at high levels in Congress, Executive Branch and other areas of our nation’s government.

As alcohol, caffeine and nicotine are drugs that are deemed legal for those of the appropriate age in our American society, I sense that this gaming culture offers similar psychological and physical enticements to people of all ages (whether or not a game is age-appropriate or not). In fact, I also believe that just as the aforementioned drugs can adversely affect one’s social and family life when used in excess, the same is true for video/computer games as a drug of choice.

In the past month or so, I have been in close contact with persons close to me who play these games. I have been both cheered and revolted as I’ve tried to keep my son from exposure. Thank you to the family member who would immediately turn off the TV when playing a violent shooter game after my son and I walked through the door. No thank you to those who are so engrossed that they forget who’s around and even when made aware continue to inhale a worthless usage of their time.

Again, let me stress to any who may be offended at reading my scathing words that I’m not declaring that these video/computer games should never be played. Yet, considering them as a drug of choice, I do think that people need to evaluate why they do play them and examine closely to make sure that they aren’t doing themselves or others around them harm by spending hours a day on them.

I once played video games on a weekend here and there while a student but as life’s gates opened in my early twenties I personally reached a point where I stopped nearly altogether any sort of gaming-save for some tic-tac-toe type game when in the dead office hours during my desk job days. We have so much coming at us these days, I can’t fathom how people can and do spend so much time voluntarily glued to a screen when they walk away with nothing but a digital experience that fades until the next drug-like high, level reached, shooter game conquered, et cetera.

My message to those young people who are in college or freshly minted young adults aquiver with opinions and protests about how our society is so poisonous, politics are horrible and the complaints go on: STOP wasting your mind then on these games when out of your mouth you disdain the world around you that you seem to ignore and avoid when investing your precious time and mind energy on useless video/computer game outcomes.

To my colleagues who are parents: beware for your children, include gaming as just another drug you need to be aware of. You know what’s best for your child/children, I will not dictate what you should consider doing. I will share with you that although my children may hate me at times, I am willing to risk that hatred as my husband and I have decided that there will be zero tolerance in our home for video games. It means I’ll be very exhausted in coming years but safeguarding the development of their personal discipline habits, imagination, verbal and social skills will be worth every wrinkle and gray hair I develop.

R.V.S.B.