Tag: technology

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china contemplations inspiration morning coffee talk Photography street photography

Daily Coffee Talk~ 69/365

Shanghai~ 2019

Hi my friends, today was another packed day with so much to do, most of which was done šŸ˜Š.

Earlier a conversation stood out to me about our use and our reliance on devices throughout our daily lives.

How many of you actually learn peopleā€™s phone numbers by heart? Or do you, like me, rely on the stored contact list on your devices?

Take a scenario where you are traveling and you are about to check in only to realize your phone is missing. You want to show your boarding card but you canā€™t, you want to show your proof of vaccination, not possible, you want to call someone, definitely canā€™t. Itā€™s a mini nightmare, isnā€™t it?

What is it that had caused us to focus our lives away from the big world into small virtual ones inside screens?

Donā€™t get me started on the meta verse! Thatā€™s need its own blog entry.

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New York Photography

Slaves to the screen~

Who could have imagined that a day would come when our own advances in technology would enslave us and shut us out of the world we are anxious to know about. Screens are becoming a serious addiction for so many that we spend most of our waking hours staring into screens.

This all reminds me of a movie I saw years ago called “until the end of the world”, which haunted me for years and now today to some level I see it coming to life.

On that note, I will put away my screen and say good night.

Day 32 of 365

Images taken on the streets of New York City

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CHINA life Photography shanghai

lonely together~ Shanghai

on the huangpu ferry~ Shanghai
on the huangpu ferry~ Shanghai

We created and developed technology to connect us, little did we know how lonely it would make us…

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Egypt history life Photography street

Day 16~ March 16th~ Egypt

the Egypt of today

History and civilizations are not linear in their development…

Each time I look at remains of ancient civilizations like the Chinese, the Mayans, the Romans, the Greeks, and the Egyptians, I find it quite difficult to relegate the fact that a lot of what is evident in their artifacts and architecture points to a more developed culture in certain ways than what we are witnessing today. Despite the post-industrial revolution’s speedy advancements in technology, I find that comparing for example the pyramids, temples, artwork of the ancient Egyptians, today’s Egypt appears to be primitive in so many ways.

This leads me to wonder where the human race has gone wrong. Did we deviate in some way from the glory that could have been? Or is a world engrossed in wars, poverty, global warming, revolutions and failed leaderships the way of the future?

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life Photography

Day Three Hundred Forty Five, January 2, 2012

jet lag

January 2nd was a day of airports and airplanes and naturally jet lag. For me feeling a jet lag and being out of sorts for a few days after a plane ride is a certain indication that humans were never meant to travel that fast across the globe. The way things used to be for us hundreds of years ago seems to be the more gentle and natural way to move around, on horseback, walking, on rafts, boats, even sailing. As much as we enjoy technological advances, something about them always has the hint of alien attached to it…

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Photography

Day two Hundred Fourty Seven, September 26, 2011

to walk in the avenue of change

I was looking in a drawer the other day and I came across an old phone (the palm 650), I carried it in my hand and felt stunned at its weight, bulkiness and clumsy appearance. This was my dream phone only 2 years ago because it had a keyboard for writing emails. And I realized 3 phones later and several ‘i’ gadgets since, that the speed at which technology is developing is astounding. If we don’t stop to examine it, we can almost miss it. As soon as you get your mind wrapped around your new and unbelievably futuristic ipad, you feel uncool to be seen with it since the far cooler ipad 2 is now out!

It is a cause of so much concern actually to see what kind of world and at what staggering speed we are leading our children into their digital future. I wonder if someone was to to go to a desert island for a few years without any contact to the outside world and come back, what kind of impression will this fast changing world have on them and how will they cope?

photo taken: Lea walking over a Chinese character stencil on the street in Pudong

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Photography

Day Two Hundred Ten, August 20, 2011

airport day!

Doing a 365 photography project, you are bound to have a day spent in airports. These days we find ourselves in transit so often and our children become expert travelers at such a young age.

I still remember my first flight as a child (from Lebanon to Cyprus) and how totally exciting it was for me to get on that flying machine that was almost too magical to comprehend. I still remember so many little details and the flights after that were counted on a diary page proudly as a great achievement in the world of adventures and quests.

Not for my daughter, she flies too much to keep count of her journeys, too often for it to be super special, and too easily available for it to be an achievement. Another strange onset of the modern world we are creating!

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Photography

Day One Hundred Sixty Five, July 6, 2011

living in a virtual world

And how many communication gadgets do you own and how addicted are you to them? Almost everyone I know flirts daily with at least one phone, one computer, one ipod, one ipad, one game with a wireless connection, among other newly invented virtual reality toys, and they spend a large chunk of the day engrossed in that world, that it becomes real. The virtual avatars, gravatars and buddy icons become as real as you and me (well you are probably virtual to me as I am to you anyway) and it is kind of scary. We are living the scifi movie that we watched and wondered at as children. These days you can even play a highly addictive computer game where you create your own alternate world and be with others in it, fall in love, meet new people, get a new career, that some end up preferring it to their real life and get sucked into it as they gradually lose their grip on their physical world. Just some thoughts that were triggered by the subject of my street photo.

Photo taken: a girl in Shanghai completely oblivious to me, the pedestrian and car traffic while texting