monica thyberg August 16, 2011 at 03:01 pm

In my opinion, the most significant changes in the world today--although this started happening at least three decades ago, not just recently, is the immense concentration of wealth in the hands of the very few. Another most significant thing is the explosion of the many means of communication which enables instant communities to be convened--for destructive as well as for constructive purposes--and allows false information to be spread rapidly thereby creating negative actions and even panic among large groups of people. Everything has become unpredictable for everyone, thus creating widespread psychological distress and the consequent negative fallout for the population as a whole.

Vivian Tran August 17, 2011 at 05:07 am

The most significant and immense change in my world today is the shift toward an over-reliance on the internet, and technology in general. There's an ongoing joke that nothing is official until it's posted on Facebook, but sadly it's becoming more and more true each day- teens and adults alike put more value in a social media presence than in actual, real life relationships, "friending" people who they have just met after five minutes just to increase their friend counts. I was recently left without internet for two days at home, and nearly drove myself crazy trying to find things to do- I lasted about 30 minutes listening to a book on tape, wondering how my brother and I had been able to listen to the complete, 13- hour Lord of the Rings trilogy as kids. I'm not saying that the internet or this laptop I'm using to reply is a bad thing- just that it'd be nice if everyone could pry themselves away from their Macbooks and BlackBerries, take the headphones out of their ears and walk around and explore outside once in a while. Look out at actual trees and sun instead of ones in the background of a friend's profile picture,

Darlene Pagano August 17, 2011 at 04:40 pm

The frantic busyness is amazing. And it always seems to involve more and more commodities, resulting in more and more commitment to jobs. Buy it/I want it/I deserve it. The consequences of the mindset are unbelievably variant and significant. A tiny consequence in the OTHER direction I have noticed is that the hyper-local media, like Patch, are helping me know more about the HERE and letting me know about an amazing number of activities that DON'T cost money or involve status competition. One example of the benefits of participating in the LOCAL.