I think whoever claimed you can tell a person by those they surround themselves with was an extremely wise man. I think that this is very true, and that you can indeed determine the character and meter of a person based off their personality, but I digress, if I were going to go on and on about other people's ideas, that would simply make me a drone, and that is not how I wish to be thought.

With the evolution of technology comes the evolution of culture. This is true, and it always has been true as history shows us. From the first stick picked up and used to kill an animal for food to the invention of the first self propelled car, right down to the H-bombs and especially computers, culture has always changed to follow the direction of technology.

Now this is not to say that technology has not been influenced by culture, indeed this is a two way path, as we can clearly see with something as recent even as the invention of the cell phone. When Star Trek was on the air in its early years, the characters communicated through a 'two-way communicator' if I recall correctly. Now as our species watched and marveled at this small, portable device that let you talk to others remotely without wires or range limitations, one of us out there thought 'now there's an idea, I wonder if it would be possible to make one of those for our culture', and thus the seed was planted that would eventually lead to inventions such as the iPhone, Blackberry devices, and text messaging.

Now one of the major culture movements we have seen directly related to technology is impossible to miss: social networking sites. And if you don't think this is a culture-technology joint movement, look at the recent TV commercials aired by Coleman. In their commercials, they claim to be the original 'social networking site' with the products they have produced that promoted outdoors activities, the active family, and meeting new people in campgrounds and on vacations, something we rarely see anymore in its raw form, especially now that we have cruise ships and all inclusive resorts, private beach houses and expensive catered events.

It is sad in a way to see how technology has changed our species. It used to be that an honest living meant a day at the factory, or out in the field getting sweaty and coming home with the smell of the raw earth on your body, grime and grit under your fingernails and our backs tanned or blackened from the sun or the soot of our labors. Now, with the invention and evolution of computers, we see the aforementioned 'honest day's living' going to the man who sells the most homes in a given time, or the secretary who answers phones all day and processes paperwork, or the CEO who has built a company not through hard physical labor, but through chasing the loopholes and gray areas newly opened by the internet and technology.

No longer is the age of those who build their careers in a literal sense, nowadays we rarely mow our lawns, rake our leaves in fall, change our own oil, and in some places, we don't even pump our own gas. How much has our planet changed just in the past few decades to go from honest hard-working people to politically correct, up-tight and skiddish people who will sue over spilled coffee as one woman did in a McDonalds a few years back. Now our social divides are either nonexistent, as defined legally and socially in our physical forms, or they are so extreme as to be appalling, as the difference between the nuclear giant of the planet and the small third-world countries where drug runners rule the streets while corrupt government officials fight and shoot each other, leaving the people to starve in their own fields of crops.

Where does technology take place in this new world of extremes? Well, we must take a step back for a minute and re-consider the social networking possibilities of the past and present. Remember 'what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas?' Well, now with the internet and smart phones and 3G and Mobile Web, what happens in Vegas no longer stays in Vegas, but is instead broadcast worldwide before 'it' is even finished through Youtube and Facebook and Twitter.

Yes, these social networking sites can spread news and positive image quicker than you can think, but they also bring about a whole new cultural movement of the social profile. Now you can't get a job without being Googled (and just think, when a cyber company name is both a noun and an adjective). As with the statement that you can judge a man by those he surrounds himself with, the Internet simply quickens and accentuates the harsh truth even more, especially now with some of the tools and 'lugins' offered by these sites.

Just today I logged on to Facebook to find in my mini-feed a message informing me that one of my friends had been voted overall more intelligent than my other friends. Furthermore, it had asked for my opinion. Now this got me thinking, for those who are voted 'best' in whatever the qualifications, there is certainly a harsh truth behind that. For if we can be judged by those we surround ourselves with, and we are voted the most intelligent of our group, then what does that truly say about us?

Granted I am not one to appreciate being accused of low intelligence, and who can blame me, no one likes being called an idiot, but at the same time being the best has a certain tragedy in it. If we are the smartest, fastest, brightest, or best, is that not sugar-coating the fact that we are merely surrounding ourselves with others who are truly below us? Is it not true then that we are not facing everyday challenges, but instead we are the challenge?

A wise man once told me that in order to improve yourself in any one skill, you should surround yourself or challenge yourself by competing with those who are better than you are, for this competition and failure will truly help make you stronger. By doing so, you will expose yourself to new challenges, tricks, and experiences you cannot achieve when you are unparalleled in skill. By doing this, your failure will help to grow your skills and experiences, and you will become a better person from this. This wise man happens to be my father, and still today the wisdom in his words reflect the experience and knowledge he possesses, the type of wisdom, knowledge, and experience I one day hope to possess as well.

Now I know I am no professional writer, nor am I a poet or a professional public speaker, I am just an everyday person like anyone else who might read this, and because of that I understand and am aware of the apparent randomness and disorganization of this excerpt of my thoughts, and while I realize a decent review and edit would likely greatly help to clarify some things in this, I also believe tampering with said excerpt would simply take away from the true meaning and thought that was originally put into it.

Now if I were called to summarize the meaning in such an excerpt, I would ask that we look deeper into the things we take to be granted and the things we place in front of ourselves for personal entertainment, that we look deeper into these things beyond the surface and extrapolate the deeper truths behind these things; I ask that we not accept this cultural and technological change, but that instead we realize it, and utilize it to aid in bettering ourselves as individuals.

We all know the analogy of the single stick in comparison to the bundle of sticks, and how it is easier to break a single stick; that the sum of the whole is greater than the individual parts combined, and if we would only apply this theory and better ourselves, we would see a bettering in our society in general, that we take the little stuff into serious consideration, listen to the advice of our elders, and set out to do the best we can do through interactive failure and success, learning from our mistakes and building to better not only ourselves, but ultimately our society as a whole.