I am not even going to mince words on this topic, I HATE TECHNOLOGY. This is odd because I am sitting here at a computer which is hooked up to the Internet and I am writing a Blog. So I guess I hate technology but I use it. When I was growing up we didn't have a lot of technology. Although compared to when my mom grew up, I had a lot of technology as a child. My mom didn't have indoor plumbing or television or running water. She had an outhouse, the radio and a well with a pump at the kitchen sink. I know this because as a child I visited the house where my mom grew up and all of those things were still there. Although my mom's parents did put in an indoor bathroom and they did have a black and white television later in life.
When I grew up we had a rotary dial telephone and a black and white television and initials like "DVD, PC, CD and DS" were non-existent. Not to mention words like "Internet, Facebook, Cell Phone and Caller ID" were not part of our vocabulary. Our idea of "caller ID" was if I was home and my mom was at work and she wanted to check on me, then she would ring the phone two times, hang up and call back. Then I knew it was my mom and answer otherwise I just wouldn't pick up the phone. That was a good system! It worked! And for some reason these day it is necessary to walk around while talking on the phone. With the phone I grew up with you couldn't walk all around the house. There was a cord and it was attached to the phone which was attached to the wall. You talked on the phone and you stayed put because the cord was only about one foot long. Although, I must say, that at some point the phone company began selling longer phone cords. This longer cord was the bomb as it allowed you to walk about six feet if you liked to pace. The problem was the cord got all tangled up and would get stuck on the furniture or a person or a pet if you weren't careful. This could be a problem if you got tangled up with the dog who was running across the room! Then, of course, every so often you would have to dangle the cord and the phone off of the receiver and watch it spin like a top to get untangled. That was kinda fun. Anywhoo.....
Now I have to admit that I do have a cell phone. I have always felt that I am just not that important that I need a phone on my person all of the time. I didn't grow up with that and we were all fine and got in touch with one another without any trouble. I know the reasoning behind having a cell phone is the "infamous line" of "if there is an emergency you have a phone". That sounds really great but honestly do we all really use the cell phone just for emergencies? I don't think so! It is more like a toy for adults...and kids too these days. Because it isn't just a phone, oh no!, it has games and Internet and ring tones and GPS and an alarm clock and every other gadget you could possibly want in one neat little package. Some of them you don't even have buttons instead you have little icons that scroll at the touch of your finger! My goodness! I will say that even though I DO have a cell phone, I don't have any of the fancy gadgets. The "fanciest" thing I have is a keyboard for texting. Now lets discuss texting for a moment. Instead of calling and actually SPEAKING with someone we are now choosing to "write" to them over the phone. This takes WAY more time than just talking. So why do we do that? Why do I do that? What happened in the last 20 years or so that makes us NOT want to talk to each other? We text and we email but we don't TALK. Have we gotten that impersonal with even our closest friends and family? I don't understand it and I DO IT! And, when we run into someone that doesn't have texting or email it is almost "shocking" -- well why don't you have text and email?...what is wrong with you!? Kinda crazy! I know for me and a number of friends that I know, a cell phone was a better choice and less expensive than having a land line at the house. After a recent trip to the Verizon Store, I found that you can now get a "wireless" land line for $19.99 per month with unlimited calling all over the U.S. No long distance charges and no outrageous bill each month. It was a true deal to be honest and hard to pass up compared to paying $50.00 or more for a land line. So my question is ... Is it really a land line if it is wireless? Will a new technological word have to be created for this new telephone device? Good grief.
The other phenomenon of technology is the personal computer and Internet which is just a larger version of the cell phone these days or vice versa. Used to be that a personal computer was used for writing a letter or for bookkeeping or keeping your recipes. Not any more! Now it is about how fast can you find out what you need to know. I will admit that I like checking on the weather and find out right then about an approaching storm but now you can "google" or "bing" or whatever just about anything and find out in a matter of seconds. When did we get so impatient? What happened to books and dictionaries and encyclopedias? The poor door-to-door encyclopedia salesmen are surely out of a job! They used to be around when I was growing up. I loved looking at encyclopedias and got excited about the new book that came in the mail. Those days are gone now. Now we just type in "pictures of crooked toes" press search and behold we have pictures of crooked toes! We search for things we want to buy, people we want to meet, services we want to sell, jobs we want to find. It is all at the touch of our fingers but at what price? Lack of real interaction with people. It is worth it? I saw this commercial, oh no another commercial, a few weeks ago and I was absolutely appalled. There is a guy and a girl and they went out on a first date. The guy drops the girl off at her house. It appears that the date went well. The guy gets in his car and SPEAKS to his car and says "FACEBOOK" or something like that. He asks for the girls Facebook page or wall or whatever to see if she wrote anything about the date. Well of course, she did. She liked the date and was telling her girlfriends on Facebook. Now I have so much to say about this I could go on and on. First of all, the girl doesn't call her friends she Facebook's her friends and not just A friend ALL of her friends and anyone else that wants to read about her date. No privacy anymore. Problem one. Then the guy actually finds out about what she says on Facebook before he EVEN pulls away from the curb in front of her house. No anticipation or curiosity that might spark a conversation or an actual phone call to the girl. Problem two. AND FINALLY, how in the world did we come to a place where we SPEAK to our car and the car ANSWERS and a car actually has INTERNET. Problem three, four, five, six etc etc etc. Are we that lazy? Do we need to know everything right at that second. Where is the mystery in life. The intrigue. The guessing and waiting. The excitement. The wonder. It makes me wonder a lot. A whole lot. I think that there is a true place for technology when it saves lives, allows us to communicate in a reliable way, even makes our jobs easier, and even sometimes technology is cool if it is fun. But, technology should not replace our humanity or the splendor of personal interactions with our fellow human beings. If it all comes down to a keyboard and a search engine, then where is the joy of life and living it fully?
Until next time,
Anne
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