As the door opens, you are enveloped in the smell of sweet cinnamon and apple floating through the air. The chuckle of uncle Jeff, the kind of laugh where he laughs so hard he starts coughing like its the funniest thing he has heard in his lifetime. Everyone knows its not really that funny though. He is probably just laughing at something he said while everyone else is laughing just because he is such a character. The twinkling christmas tree sits in the corner just past the family on the couch.
Presents are nestled under the loose, low hanging limbs right beside the train track and porcelain town. Down the hallway, pleasant and nostalgic christmas songs are playing while mom is setting the table with plates, flowers and holly decoration. Christmas used to be a time where families could come together and enjoy each others presence, but it is no longer common. It created a warm feeling deep in our souls, the feeling of love and comfort. Throughout the years, modern culture has changed the holiday experience from warm and loving to a season revolved around out devices.
I attribute this lack of holiday experience with the rise of technology: increased the ideal of gifts, decreased the religious impact, and has changed the way we interact with loved ones. In present day, presents on christmas have become a necessity and social normality, and technology has affected where we shop, what we give, and how we give presents to others. In the past, Christmas was a gift in itself. Getting to see your family, having a great home cooked meal, and basking in the joy of the season.
It is not that simple anymore, families are expected to fork out outstanding amounts of money on gifts for not only their children but loved ones and distant family. Technology has been a supporter this unhealthy trend, now even if you may not see the family you have across the world you are expected to send them e-gifts. We no longer get the experience of going out and finding the perfect gift for our family, we simply buy them a gift card or another gift that has no significance.
There are few who do take time in looking for the perfect, meaningful gift and the rising popular online shopping is the way they do it. Without shopping in the stores, there is a sense of bonding and family time that is lost. All of the family going out to the city and picking out gifts for one another and trying to sneak around without them seeing you buy it for them. The process of the purchasing power of the online shopper is a vicious cycle, although convenient in our busy lifestyles, it leaves families sitting in their rooms on their phones or laptops wasting the quality time they could be having.
Not only does technology hurt our bonding time, it also has become a large priority in life. Technology has become a significant part of our lives, from our phones, to laptops, to iPads, to almost anything around us. The need for the latest and best technology is in high demand, wanting to be able to post a picture of your new Iphone 6 on Instagram for everyone to see and be jealous. Competition has become fierce, and parents are feeling the heat around the seasons to supply their children with the latest and greatest, or they are deemed the worst parents ever!
Ideals have changed, needs have increased, families are struggling, technology is changing our needs for gifts. Not only has technology has changed our needs during the season, it has also changed the religious culture. With the increase of technology, there becomes a vast amount of information at our disposal without much of a filter. This allows for just about anyone to be able to access just about anything online, any time of the day, and anywhere. It creates an opening in the world for religious intolerance and the evil that surrounds it.
Many videos and pictures have been released showing the gruesome activities performed by some religions and cultures. This information creates a bad look for many cultures, and makes many followers question their faith. Atheism and other non-believers have been frowned upon for many years, but with the wide amount of people and information online, it has become seemingly normal. Since Christmas is a religious holiday, the negative connotation of religion has created a bad look for all religious holidays.
Although Christmas, the annual Christian festival celebrating Christ’s birth on December 25, is a religious celebration, many people still practice it. We have lost the real meaning behind christmas without the religious background, soon children will not even know why we have christmas or go to church, just that it is a day they receive presents and are forced to go hangout with the family they don’t even like. Another downfall to technology being so widespread is that it has almost obliterated the idea of Santa Claus.
Santa used to be the pride and joy of Christmas, waiting in bed to hear him land on the roof to bring you presents if you were a good little boy or girl. It has become way too easy to just google is Santa real and everything is ruined for your childhood. Finding out that it is mom and dad eating the cookies you made all those years, buying you presents, and writing you cards. Religion is changing throughout the ages and being spread through technology, taking out the spirit very quickly from the holidays.
Even though technology has helped us connect with family and loved ones across the world, it has changed the way we interact with the people surrounding us. Technology has become one of the best ways to communicate with people across the world. This is especially great during the holidays, we are able to communicate with them instantaneously. There is no more need for snail mail and having to plan it out to send a card ahead to time just incase the ail gets backed up and doesn’t make it on time for the holidays. Instant messaging has been developed to talk to others, and most recently video chatting.
Video chatting has opened a new realm of connection across the world, allowing us to stream live video over the internet to talk to one another as if they were in front of us. Video chatting has made it easier for families apart, military families, and anyone who can not make it whether it be a sickness, distance, or time. However, technology has also made us more distant from those right next to us. Technology makes it easy to take each others company for granted, while attempting to communicate with others who could not be here.
Sitting in the living room around the fire, were everyone should be sharing how their day went, what they are excited about, but instead sit and play on the phone or computer looking at the lives of others while they could be living theirs. The social media networks create a false sense of happiness, being able to post a picture and pretend they are having the time of their lives when in reality they are doing the very same thing. This mindless act, although convenient and helpful for connecting with distant loved ones, makes us disconnected from the real meaning and reason for the holidays
As many sit in the living room not interacting with the family and getting the full experience of the holidays, there are still few out there who celebrate the true meaning. Although as the years pass the more modern technology becomes, hopefully the true meaning of christmas won’t be fully lost. Even though the odds are against the holiday spirit with increasing materialistic needs, decreased religious beliefs, and the interaction with one another, there will always be that glimmer of hope and spirit in a childs eyes on Christmas morning that will restore all hope in the world.
