Telephone Booth Time Machine

If you could, would you step into the booth, pick up the phone to answer the "call" and go back to a "better" America, and would we actually find what we’re looking for? Or are we simply witnessing the inevitable evolution of who we’ve always been—only now, the "volume" has been turned way up, to a deafening level by the social noise on the screens of our mobile phones. Wasn't it all so much much better when these things were still plugged in, but we were unplugged... But now we're being told America is in a "Golden Age" or at least trying to recapture one long lost.

The Myth of the "Golden Age"

There is a powerful nostalgia for the mid-20th century—a time of perceived stability, a booming middle class, and a sense of shared national purpose. We look at old photos and see a version of the American Dream that felt attainable. But we have to be intellectually honest: that "better" era wasn't better for everyone. For millions of Americans, that same period was defined by systemic exclusion, silenced voices, and a lack of fundamental rights.

When we say we want to go back, are we looking for a return to virtue, or are we just nostalgic for a time when our problems were easier to ignore or at least fewer and further apart? Or maybe we just didn't realize the problems existed, because their wasn't an algorithm in the cloud with all our favorite hate and rage bait. It was "blissful ignorance".

The Digital Mirror

This brings us to the alternative: What if America hasn't actually changed that much? What if what we now see in the social media news feeds on our phones is who we've always been, just grown up for the moment of time that we are currently standing in?

Maybe we aren't "falling apart"; maybe we’ve always been this messy, this divided, and this complex. The difference is that in our past, our neighbor’s radical opinion stayed over the backyard fence., and inside the four walls of their home; or at the very least inside the domes on our shoulders.

Today, that opinion is amplified by an algorithm, broadcast to millions, and served to you before you’ve even had your morning coffee. We're now all raging even before we get behind the wheel of our social status metal death machines, and head off to interact with people in the real world.

Technology hasn't just changed how we communicate; it has acted as a high-definition mirror. It has pulled back the curtain on the cracks in our foundation that were always there. We are seeing the "evolution" of our national character in real-time, and it’s uncomfortable because we can no longer look away.

Evolution vs. Regression

If we are evolving, the growing pains are excruciating. We are grappling with:

The Loss of a Shared Reality: where we no longer watch the same news, receive the same information, or even trust the same people, organizations, and institutions. We are being divided digitally and processed for the most economic profit and efficiency. It's social capitalism, that's creating mountains of GDP profits over united communities: and it's happening at a rate that makes each passing year feel even further away from what was once normal.

The Velocity of Information: We react to headlines in seconds, leaving no room for nuance or reflection, and because we are all locked away in our sociopolitical echo chambers, the reverberation is sustained, until division is sewn.

The Paradox of Connection: We are more "connected" than ever, because of the electronic porthole to the World in our pockets. yet we report record levels of loneliness and sociopolitical animosity. Inconsideration has now become our virtue, and when we are out in the the real world, we're carrying a motto of, "Don't Tread on Me, I Tread on You". The more we bind ourselves to our online tribe, the less we connect with the people outside.

So, where do we go from here, and what do we do?

Are we a nation of people that have lost our way? Do we need to be "Made Great Again" by reclaiming a specific national identity, and set of values, we believe have been lost to the past? or...

Are "The Good Old Days" really an achievable goal or are they just a ghost? - Either way we are all in this together, and none of us are getting out of this alive.

Hooyah America!