Fast is good?

Probably no one can deny that technology exists almost everywhere, and it is so influential in every aspect of our everyday living. Somehow technology creates a culture attempting to pull people into the fast-moving current. I wonder if the following observation can be my exercise of ethnography.

Last night I was too tired to read or work; therefore I decided to spend the night with my wife. We sat on the sofa watching television. Amazing enough! It seemed that all channels were displaying commercials and the Internet and 3G commercials appeared most frequently. I discovered that all communication commercials emphasized on FAST and SPEED. One commercial even came with the slogan, “Fast is good!” Others stressed on the comprehensiveness of network coverage. An hour later, I switch off the television because I could not stand the commercials.

After I cut off the power, I pondered for a while and could not help questioning, “Why is wrong if I refuse to be slow?” and “Why do communication providers in both Taiwan and the U.S. all compete each other with speed and coverage on television commercials?” I think communication technology creates a culture forcing/attracting people to chase speed rather than success itself. If someone chooses to be fast, then I have to be fast too; otherwise going slower than other people means failure.

But if I want to win and therefore push the fast-forward bottom button in order to be fast, what kind of life will I have? To save time for cooking, I eat fast food. I eat it fast because I do not have time for dinning. To save time for researching, I use google rather than the library. To save time for everything; therefore I have to skim everything. When FAST becomes a universal value, it becomes a monoculture too. When wireless network gives us freedom to connect to the net, it also becomes a net that traps us with e-mails, messages and information. Worst of all, what if everyone celebrates such value and attempts to colonialize the world with it (singing “Joy to the world as virus spreads like peanut butter on the bread. Every moment is schizophrenic!”).

If you have seen the commercials, do you agree with “fast is good?” As Diane discussed fast boom economy in Tertulia last night, I was thinking about another passage in Wilkinson’s The Eagle Bird, “We are losing the West, both the slowmoving, uncluttedered way of life and the spirituality that lies thick and sweet over every river, every high divide, every big expanse of open sagebrush range” (186). Personally the slowmoving way of life reminds me of my childhood. It was a time when alarm clock is rare in my country so we woke up when roosters’ crying broke the dawn. Telephone was not popular so we communicate with letters. We wrote calligraphy slowly and patiently because we believe it is an essential comportment of a sincere letter.

Wilkinson’s words also inspire me to rethink the definition of both modernity and developed country. If we grade how modern a country is through the standard of its Internet services, speed and coverage, should we also look into its medical care and health insurance system to see how long dose it take to save a dying patient or how many people are covered by insurance? If we define a developed, developing or underdeveloped country through its GNP, should we also measure the country’s index of happiness before we label it?

After watching those commercials and reading Wilkinson’s passage, we can choose to follow the current, resist it, or remain open. But it is a possibility for me, choosing a slower pace rather then living in the schizophrenic moments. C'est la vie!