I think actor Ethan Hawke said it best in the movie “Reality Bites” when he said: “I take pleasure in the details. A Quarter Pounder with cheese, those are good.”

It’s a polluted world we live in, people. We were taught in grade school about all the different kinds of pollution: air, water, light, etc. But another one has entered the picture, one they never warned us about. And I think this kind of pollution deserves a category all to itself.

You could say it is air pollution. Factories continue to pump smoke out in the air. When the people of big cities like Los Angeles look into the sky they don’t see blue, they see a dark, puke gray.

You could also say it is water pollution. Many of these same factories regularly pour chemical wastes into lakes, rivers and harbors.

And you could even say it is light pollution. Big cities are full of bright lights. Yet most of these light sources send just as much light into space. That is not only a waste of light but a waste of money.

So it definitely falls under all of these categories, but even those are not quite covering it. You see, the above definitions are the effects. This pollution is the cause.

It’s life pollution.

From the crowded streets of New York City to a little campustown in Ames, Iowa, this world is an extremely cluttered place. And unfortunately, the root of the problem seems to be a priority in a lot of people’s lives: technology.

Privately owned companies continue to introduce the latest in technology. It seems that when you buy something nowadays, there’s already something better out there. And these products range from computers to guided missile systems.

Sure, there are benefits. Things like being able to obtain a wealth of knowledge through the internet. Things like bigger plains, faster trains and safer automobiles. Things like impenetrable burglar systems or cellular phones. For college students, things like the ability to reach anyone, anywhere in a matter of seconds through e-mail.

The unbelievable thing is that even better technology is just around the corner. The only thing more interesting then what Bill Gates is doing in his office is what Bill Clinton is doing in his.

But while these corporate conglomerates race to see who can out-do each other, nobody stops to ponder the consequences. For all that modern technology has given the world, it has deprived it of the subtle but irreplaceable joys.

The people who live in big cities cannot take a deep breath of fresh air anymore. Polluted waters lead to polluted fish which lead to a polluted food chain. And there is so much light in the world that it’s impossible to gaze at the stars without driving 20 miles into the country. In a few years, star gazing — one of my favorite pastimes — will be no more.

I often wonder who lived a better life: an American kid growing up in the nineties or a Native American 500 years ago. It may seem obvious to some, but not to me. Think of how the Native American spent his days. A hunting trip with his father, cooking his own food on an open fire, watching the sun set over the western horizon and gazing at stars until he fell asleep. That to me sounds like a pretty fulfilling day.

Many kids today come home from school and either go watch television, surf the net, or play their Play Stations for hours. This kind of activity limits communication between family members, and the amount of time they spend together is significantly less. Now, it’d be an ignorant misstatement to say that this can be to blame for all family troubles. But isn’t it kind of interesting that as technology has increased, so has the divorce rate?

Modern technology has made parts of our lives easier. I would even say that it has been beneficial in a lot of areas. But somewhere in this smog of benefits, the details have been lost.

Jackson Lashier is a freshman in journalism and mass communication from Marshalltown.