The snow falls from the clouds, as children have snowball fights, build snowmen with their friends, and cozy up by the fire to enjoy some delicious hot chocolate. Families welcome carolers on their doorstep, friends waiting for holiday cards every time the mail arrives. We’ve embraced these traditions as a part of the holiday season, but where have they gone? Why don’t we see people participating in old traditions as often as we used to?
In today’s modern society, traditions all around have changed as technology advances and becomes more a part of our lives.
As technology becomes more a part of our lifestyle, it takes over aspects of our traditions as well. Our phones have become more prominent in our lives, so have emails, text messages and social media. Before technology, how did we communicate during the holidays?
This brings us to hand written Christmas Cards. Christmas Cards were originally a technology free expression of love or admiration during the holidays. Something you would send to your own loved ones if they couldn’t make it during the holidays, but things have changed drastically. One of our very own South High educators, Mrs. Farrell, expresses how Christmas Cards have impacted her, “I am very sad because people used to send Christmas Cards all the time. I would hang them up and show them off, but now I only get a fraction of what I used to get. I don’t know why.”
Well, Mrs.Farrell, we can answer that for you! As technological advancements take place, people find ways to form new traditions to keep up with the growing society. People now create virtual Christmas cards for convenience, and because it’s overall cheaper. It’s not necessarily that people do not care, but they show their care in a form that isn’t hand-written. While it could be from a lack of time or care, I would primarily say the reason for this tradition changing is due to how everything has changed.
The music has changed too. The upbeat melodies of the holiday season have become less prominent, giving way to a more modern sound. This could be due to the newest popular technological thing, A.I. As A.I had popularized, so has A.I music as well. There are Christmas songs completely made out of A.I. Technology is becoming more and more ingrained into our lives. Now in our opinion, A.I is good for creativity. But the reason why traditions are so important is because they showed emotion – emotions only humans can feel. Technology can become a part of Christmas traditions, but maybe we should question if this technological change is positive or not?
