A Modern Life

Messages flying into view with a mind designed to capture you

Gadgets that send our words into space, spoken broken then interlaced

Strength of will not to split in two, information stagnating in a mental queue

Recreational knockoffs of the original toys that we used to love

These are details of a modern life, oh oh oh

These are the things required by a modern life, oh oh oh

These are details of a modern life, oh oh oh

These are the things required by a modern life, oh oh oh

Wars hidden behind mirrors and smoke, too expensive to fix so discard when broke

Laughing behind your poker face, the shortcuts are trampled in the human race

Strength of will not to fall apart, trust mistakenly placed in the human heart

Slipshod reproductions cast of the original ones that were built to last

These are details of a modern life, oh oh oh

These are the things required by a modern life, oh oh oh

These are details of a modern life, oh oh oh

These are the things inspired by a modern life, oh oh oh

And we don’t think much about it

We’re all so stuck in our own heads

We’ve lowered the stakes and raised our bets

Monkey see and monkey gets

These are the details of a modern life

These are the travails of a modern life

These are things required by a modern life

These are things inspired by a modern life

Isn’t everything just automatic? Why can’t everything be automatic

And we don’t think much about it

We’re all so stuck in our own heads

We’ve lowered the stakes and raised our bets

Monkey see and monkey gets

We don’t think about it now, we don’t think about it


***

I came up with the idea for this song one day when I was waiting for the 217 bus at the corner of Fairfax and Santa Monica, near my apartment. I was in a daze and, looking around, it just struck me what a heightened state of hyper-reality we live in. Looking around, I saw gigantic billboards, busses and trucks advertising businesses and websites, people talking on their cell phones and texting... I just thought, it's become such a different world so quickly. There are so many things about day-to-day life that barely existed when my parents were young, that were only far-off visions when my grandparents were young, and didn't even exist in people's wildest imaginations before that. With all the technology that has come to supposedly make life easier has come a whole new set of challenges, obstacles, distractions, and issues.


Comments

Brandonbodt said…
Yes, but we all love it too.

Technology is really in a hurry to get us somewhere. I was wondering the other day how permanent anything we do in the digital realm really is. What if one day the language of 0's and 1's all our gadgets and computers speak becomes a dead language... how will they ever know what we were really all about if we all go away. previous civilizations left their marks in a much more permanent manner.
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