Time and Its Dramatic Effects

In the last 20 minutes the sun has been setting and I inadvertently found myself at http://nist.gov trying to set my computer clock to auto-update it's time. However, I found a wonderful applet that shows where the sun is shining all over the world (link). Here is a screen shot of what it looked like when I was looking at it, I added some red dots to show locations. The sun is almost shining on both me and all my friends and family in NY at the same time...so close. The applet is animated to show the the map in real time, so I can actually sit here and "watch the sun rise" over NY.

Since I've been in Thailand I've noticed a characteristic of people around my age in that Thais aren't really much different from Americans. For instance, they listen to the same music as I do. There was a Hardcore/Metal music festival in Chiang Mai earlier this month where bands from Bangkok, Chiang Mai and other parts of Thailand gathered around to play some of the crazy extreme music that I've come to love so much. I was talking to a couple Chinese teenagers last week who listen to the coolest emo/punk bands from the US - and have all their tee shirts and other paraphernalia! They also watch similar movies, go shopping, wear the same kinds of clothes. I've also noticed that the younger generation of Thais tend to be obviously bigger than their parents (I assume because of increased wealth and so increase food, especially as they were growing up).

The trend of increased communication lines like cell phones, TV, IM, email, Facebook and text messaging allow Chinese kids to hear about trends on the other side of the world on a daily (or hourly) basis. In an increasingly real sense, my generation is defined by the Internet and technology that surround us. Because of the dramatic sense that it unites people from opposite cultures, we may have earned a name for ourselves as being the first generation that can be recognized as spanning the entire globe. It's also obvious to me that these characteristics aren't common with the older generation. We are truly a unique generation.