that I’m a 90s kid but I can say that
during preschool and kindergarten the
word Apple only implied the fruit not
the multi-billion dollar company that it
is today like many of you most of my
life has been surrounded by innovation
discovery and creation our world thrives
on the concepts of quicker and better
and we try our best to keep up with the
constant changes but really fortunate or
unfortunate we’ve grown accustomed to
this way of life from clothing trends
pop culture topics technology and
physical waste everything we see and do
has become disposable for instance
almost every other year a new iPhone is
released if our own is working or not we
get new phones because we want the
newest better and quicker thing our
world has evolved into this way of life
and as a result our generation has
become disposable disposable literally
means to be used once or until no longer
useful and then to be thrown away our
generation is surrounded by new
constantly but why have we grown
accustomed to a life where nothing is
truly cherished think about this for a
second we have accustomed to we have
become accustomed to a disposable
lifestyle I bet you really can’t think
of one true reason why we have become
adapted to this disposable routine
possibly because of environmental
factors in 1999 the first interactive
blog was created and is still in use
today an article written by The
Telegraph discusses a study conducted in
Canada where 2,000 technologically
advanced persons referring to those that
are particularly good at using and
understanding technology were surveyed
and 112 of those persons had a brain
test done in order to study their brain
activity the study was trying to gain a
greater understanding of the human
attention span the results shows that
the human attention span was 12 seconds
in 2000 and in 2015 it was reported that
it dropped to 8 seconds even more
interesting the study concluded that a
goldfish has a longer attention span
than a human being they outsmart us by
one second the head researcher Bruce
Morin a researcher at the University of
Western Ontario believes that the
correlation
stems from the beginning of the
technological revolution in 2000 when we
were little kids and used to hold our
breath during those intense competitions
we learned how long seconds actually are
in just 15 years the average of human
attention span dropped in astounding
four seconds our own abstract thought
processes even become disposable a raise
of hands how many of you have gotten an
upgrade on your phone in the past two
years
I am very proficient in dropping phones
and inevitably cracked the screen so
personally I have had two phones in the
past year sorry mom and dad
because we have grown up in a world and
have witnessed quite literally a
technological revolution it’s difficult
to not want newer better and clearer but
why do we feel the need to get something
newer better and clearer when what we
have functions properly and frankly
quite well it is a social construct that
is formed over these past few years
that’s something that is 2 or 3 years
old is obsolete but the true definition
of obsolete is old-fashioned an iPhone
6’s is the furthest thing from obsolete
the typewriter is obsolete the first Mac
computer created in 1984 is obsolete
this is the true definition of
disposability aside from trading in the
actual device when you get a new phone
have you ever thought about where all
the shrink-wrap in packaging go when you
unwrap that new from phone from the
perfectly white rectangular box
according to statistic accom in 2015
there were 322 million metric tons of
plastic produced on a global scale
studies have been conducted in order to
figure out how much plastic will be
thrown into our oceans over the next few
decades
and according to the ocean conservatory
by 2050 there will be more plastic in
the ocean than fish and three times the
amount of plastic will be produced in
2050 as compared to 2014 not only have
we become disposable with our
materialistic driven world but also
within our culture political and new
circles
remember Ebola how everyone thought the
world was going to turn into a horror
movie but then everyone forgot about it
two or three weeks later
Zika when was the last time you checked
up on Zika up zones these zones are in
our own backyard straight down i-95
south and Miami but you don’t think
about it anymore do you the Kylie Jenner
lip challenge the black can go
under blue or white dress so many little
things that everyone talks about for a
minute and then to completely disregards
it this is mostly due to the fact that
there’s always something new more
interesting and more important that we
need to devote our focus to is that not
the entire basis of the app snapchat is
allowed us it allows us to look at a
picture for up to 10 seconds and once it
disappears it’s like it never happened
but the true intention of taking of a
picture was to hold on to the memory
keep the photos in a photo album and
look at them at a later time and
remember the good old days also each of
the stories on snapchat BuzzFeed the
Daily Mail people has allowed snapchat
users to quickly look at what’s going on
in the world of pop culture politics or
the news and once we no longer of
interest which apparently can only be
held for eight seconds now anyway
we can in our home button twice and go
back to a different application on the
4.7 inch screen that has literally
consumed our lives
continuing with the idea of constantly
looking at a 4.7 inch screen even the
dating scene has changed the app tinder
was created in 2012 intended to create
an accessible way to interact with
people with similar interests in the
same location if you want to match with
this person you swipe right and if not
you swipe left in 2014 tinder reported
that they received 1 billion swipes per
day an article written on the New York
Times titled on tinder taking a swipe at
love or sex or something in New York
written by Alan furor describes how the
dating scene has changed since the
invention of tinder and the beginning of
the technological revolution
Pura concludes the city’s online dating
pool is difficult to quantify but
according to experts who have studied
raiding dating trends it is mostly
composed of busy fairly wealthy
transplants who have left their friends
and families and thus are looking
assertively to make connections in the
most efficient way they can but in all
honesty putting romantic relationships
aside just becoming friends with someone
takes effort
you can’t just will a friendship because
it’s more efficient creating a
meaningful relationship takes work and
because people are looking for the most
efficient way to make a connection we
have lost our ability to cherish
relationships now our relationships have
become disposable further New York City
is to be known as one of the most
fastest cities in the world because of
how many people are walking those
crowded streets during the day how many
yellow cabs are
narrow streets and how many visitors
from around the world are visiting this
unique place because of this euro says
in a city where things move fast and
time is valuable it’s it’s quick it gets
right to the point but after a while
people tend to become dispensable it
lessens the value of each person you go
out with Allen Fuhrer concludes that
because the dating scene has changed so
much that the value of a person a living
breathing human being on this earth
value has lessened that is the true
definition of disposability we’ve grown
accustomed to a life where our physical
waste and our own abstract thought has
become disposable but this theme of this
year’s TEDx is zeitgeist the spirit of
the times but do we really want a world
where disposability is the spirit of our
time with our minds expanding innovation
creation and discovery everywhere
shouldn’t we take all our knowledge that
we have gained in order to make our
world less disposable thank you [Applause]