Technology

I often wonder about technology and if it is adding or taking away from our lives. Perhaps a little of both.

I mean, recently, I have seen so many iPods; everyone is wearing them, and a lot of people have them on all of the time. But when you have them in your ears, you are more separated from the world. The person at the cash register does not hear the music; you just give her your plastic, look at non-verbal cues, then put the credit card back in your wallet or purse. A transaction without a connection. Do this once, and it is no big deal. Do this all of the time, and you loose touch with others.

The other day, I was in a small restaurant, and I saw who I thought were mother and daughter grabbing a bite to eat. For the entire meal, they talked to other people on dueling cellular phones. You know, I don’t know if it is “cel phone” or “cell phone”. EB White, where have you gone?

Then I look at work presentations, all done with PowerPoint. I don’t know what PowerPoint does more efficiently: (1) kill a meeting’s energy, or (2) kill any sort of creativity. People are worried about font selection when their ideas are the things which need rescuing.

I am not saying we all pull a Ted Kaczynski and move to a cabin deep in the woods. Pretty soon lots of people would be mailing bombs to whomever. Sure, it helps the junk mail problem, but at a cost. And knowing hubbie, if the mailbox was blown up, it would take him weeks to replace the darned thing.

On the plus side, we can e-mail friends and family. But how many of us want to be closer to family? I mean, the cute nephews and nieces are either dribbling on their toys, not e-mailing Uncle Joe. And when they get old enough to e-mail anything of value, they would prefer to text message their girlfriends to see if Jason “really likes me.”

Yeah, I know, there have been huge improvements in vibrators. I read a blog the other day that told of a woman who got six big Os in one hour. I was about to type how they aren’t real Os, but even I couldn’t go there.

I have been told that housework is easier now. Seems just more confusing, with all of the different cleaning agents on the market. I can’t figure out what is good or bad to use. I guess what drives these questions (not the vibrator question, but the others) all deals with so much information. It is getting harder and harder to filter all of the information. And some technology seems to crush creativity.

I am not much of a photographer, but I imagine digital photography is revolutionizing this field. Most good cameras figure out lighting, aperture, F-stop, all of the things photographers had to know years ago. Now, an amateur with an average eye and a happy finger can takes hundreds of photos, and a few can’t help from turning out okay. I know a trained eye might be able to tell the difference, but most of us have untrained eyes.

I don’t know where this is going. I know there have been advances in medicine. But are we living better lives. Healthy baby boomers think so. I am not sure I do, though.

I am all for technology – but I don’t have a cel phone, can’t operate a VCR and don’t have cable. Not because the technology is evil. I just don’t have the time to apply a good filter for these things.

I tried buying a cel phone once. But I could not make up my mind. I think I will turn off the computer now. Oh, I forgot, I can’t. My work revolved around e-mail.