Everything changes! Everything must! Evolution, progress and growth are inextricable realities of life – and, in fact, welcome realities. For, without them, life would degenerate into something utterly boring and unimaginative. An endless shade of gray.



Such has been the rate of change, the world has seen more technological progress in the past 50 years than it has during the rest of human history. The rate of change is compacting so furiously, the past decade is now almost unrecognizable from the one preceding it. Change is now fast, furious and irreversible.



The question I ask myself is: At what cost?! Has progress in the past decade been all good or is there a degree of decadence to it. Are we living in a decadent age?



Decadent or not, the past decade or so has ushered in unimaginable changes across the spectrum. Reading habits and knowledge/info delivery vehicles have changed. Daily newspapers, magazines, well-crafted novels, even coffee table books – once a staple – are giving way to the digital age of websites, blogs, social media, etc. Some 140 characters find infinitely greater appeal than a 800-page Jeffrey Archer masterpiece.



No different in entertainment. Cinema and television are losing out to the view-on-demand culture of the Internet and various ‘tubes’.



Hey, leave everything aside. How human interaction has changed in the past ten years! Good ol’ conversations, discussions and healthy debate now merely ghosts of the past – replaced by Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter... Would you believe it, even email and SMS, are now old hat. ‘The only constant is change’ may be terribly clichéd, but in description of the past decade, eminently true. To be sure, change can cut both ways. But without perspective, it can become its own worst enemy.