If you've been following my blog for a while (or know a few stereotypes about anorexia), you will know I don't like change. I resist it. I detest it. This is the primary reason I have a strong aversion to new technology.
Case in point: I clung to my cassette tapes until...well, until November, when we traded in my Honda Accord, which still had Violent Femmes, Pearl Jam and The Cranberries tapes in the center console. I wish I were kidding, I really do. It took me years to convert to CDs, and just as long to accept that my music library would no longer be visible on my shelf, but would be in a folder on my computer. Speaking of computers, I had floppy discs long after they were obsolete, and I get a little uneasy every time there is a new Windows update or a new version of Internet Explorer. I wonder how I will adapt. I just want it all to be the same! Larry jokes that if I had it my way, we'd still be using rotary phones.
I don't think I'm that extreme (though aren't rotary phones cute?). I'm not like my grandmother, who refuses to understand the concept of e-mail. She thinks there is a mailbox attached to the computer and someone sends you a message and it prints itself into the box. Anyway, I appreciate technology. I do. I mean, I have a Facebook account (though I refuse to do Twitter. As my husband says, Twitter sounds like something kids did at raves in the nineties). I have a blog (duh), though I still have trouble uploading pictures and adjusting the formatting. I am a professional e-mailer. And I have a very solid, ever-growing relationship with my DVR. It took me a long time to convert to digital cable, and then to get the DVR, but now I love it. Same with my iPod. So, I do adapt. I've even considered getting one of those eReaders, though I'm not sure I could be fulfilled without a paper book in my hands. It seems weird to curl up in bed with a computer screen.
What I'm most resistant to is the idea that I can have anything at my fingertips. I feel like we're going to be a nation with our chins glued to our chests at this rate. iPhones totally scare me. I have extreme iPhone anxiety -- is there an app for that? I'm just not sure I want all that information within my grasp. I don't know if I want to watch movies while I'm on the toilet. I don't want to have beeps every time I get an e-mail. The potential for me developing a crippling case of ADHD seems very, very high in this case.
I already feel like I've developed mild ADHD with all this technology. Long gone are the days when I just focused and worked on writing a story all afternoon. Now, I'm sitting on the couch, computer in my lap, responding to e-mails or commenting on blogs while watching something on DVR, texting my sister, and painting my nails. There's just too much going on! I suppose I can see the benefits of the advancements. It's great that we can order pizzas from our mobile devices or get our cars to give us verbal directions to get to Anchorage, Alaska. But, for a maximizer like me, it's all a little overwhelming. Since it's all available, I feel like I must. access. all. of. it. There's never a point of, "OK, I'm done." There are more articles to read, more e-mails to write, more blogging to do, more Facebook profiles to stalk, more games to play, more headlines to skim, more Amazon books to browse, more TV shows to watch, more songs to download, more gossip to enjoy, more networking to accomplish. Is our free time ever totally free anymore?
Maybe it's just me, being stubborn. I'm kind of a bitch to technology. I can't stand that GPS lady, for example, though I guess I'd make amends if I was lost in the middle of a desert. There are pros and cons, but it seems there is no point in me trying to avoid it; it's here.
Do you feel excited by new technologies, or overwhelmed by them? Why or why not?
***
Today's gratitude:
1. NBC TV is back tonight. The one-hour "Office" special with the Pam-Jim baby better not be lame.
2. Appetite = really good lately.
3. I have plans to meet up with Ameena this weekend. If you haven't read her blog, you should. She's hilarious.
4. I'm already looking forward to dinner, and it's only 3pm. Did I mention my appetite is really good lately?
5. Larry has forgiven our cats for being little shits. He loves them, he knows it.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
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14 comments:
I am so EXCITED you are meeting AMEENA!!! I love her blog. I bet she has a great personality.
I feel similar about technology. I hate that it tries to make things easier... that maybe we should make people work to do? And the iPhone... it just encourages people to be rude. But I do love my mini computer and our nice plasma. So I am a hypocrite!
First off, I feel so honored to be mentioned in your blog!! I am so excited to meet you too Kim.
Secondly, my husband would be VERY disappointed in you. We are not allowed to have anything obsolete in our house...if there is a new version of anything well, we have it. I think Ali feels threatened if someone else has a better Windows version than him, or even nicer computer cables.
I definitely get overwhelmed by all the devices out there and like you I feel like I have to access.all.of.it. Major problem.
Anyway, I'm off now to go check my email as I watch my DVR and talk on the phone. Just kidding...I'm off to get Maya. The fun never ends around here!
a computer is enough for me!
twitter and ipods --- i have no idea :)
I just find I have on laptop, a bunch of pages up at once
im staying connected to real world through facebook, blog world through blogger, shopping on e-bay, supermarket online, banking and paying rent....
i do think my agoraphobic few months would have been just awful if i didnt have this technology, or has it enabled my hermitness? i dont know.
but im getting better, and this blog changed my life... so im SO EXCITED by that!.
x i opened my blog. being private made me a bit of an outsider. i miss just blogging normally.
my new blog is called jumpingcups.blogspot.com
xxxx
i love that you had cranberries in your car!!!!
do you hold onto other trends? or is it just the techo stuff?
I enjoy technology and being connected but I do feel like in the last year I've been losing some of my long interrupted time that I would normally spend on slower pleasures. Facebook is really bad for that because it's all pretty boring really, but I feel obsessed with checking it.
I was saying to my husband last week that in some ways I miss the way things were before the Internet, because the pace of things really was slower.
i am a pencil and pad kind of girl. i really need to open myself up and admit that there is a new world, and i'm way behind. i email and blog and...well, there ya go.
i resist technology and don't focus on learning. i don't upload, download, free-load, or load guns. i do, however, do lots of load of laundry.
i love this post.
say hi to ameena for me!!!
i always feel like such an old fogie (wondering if that is an Oz term?!) for being one of those people who doesn't get excited about new technology.
i can't stand the thought of trying to work out how to take a photo on my mobile phone, when all i really want to be able to do with it is make a phone call or send the occasional text message!
i like email. i can and do use the internet (obviously) but am ridiculously technologically inept. i tried to give up most of my "connections" via electronic means and actually really connect with people face to face or at least by phone. it didn't last very long, because it really is just so convenient. i love writing letters, but am terrible at actually posting them, so at least if i write an email, the person is likely to get it!! i can usually manage to hit send :-)
the husband, on the other hand, loves technology and knows how it all works so if i do need something, it is usually only a click away, with a little frustrated eye-rolling on the side.
Nova xx
I used to be really wary of new technology. Last time my mobile contract ran out I told the guy that I just wanted a phone that could make calls and send texts. The phone I ended up with turned out to have a really great camera, after about six months I started using it for all my photos and that was the first time I realised that I might like to do things other than call people with my phone. Now...I have an iPhone :P I hope you still want to know me after that confession! I HATE with a passion the non-word 'app', but the contract was so good I couldn't seem to stop myself! I imagine I will take photos with it, check my email and play sudokus and that's about it.
Anyway. I am still wary of new technology and there is no way I would get one of those thingies you can read books on, but I do appreciate the few concessions I have made. I also make sure that if I'm out on a walk, I focus on walking, not on taking a hundred photos or texting people. Same if I'm with a friend, I feel like it's rude to check messages every five minutes! Having all this technology doesn't necessarily mean getting totally dependent on it. Just being aware of the potential pitfalls is protection against that.
I hope you have fun meeting Ameena! :)
I do love new technology but sometimes it makes me worried about the future. I can't help but feel a little like, "what won't be run by a machine in the future??" I'm such an old lady sometimes. And each new thing makes the world less personal and unique. Well, maybe that's not totally true.
Good topic
Have a great day!
not at all a fan of technology... it made me obsessed with the internet, it loses the communication and connection people use to share with eachother and now it is sent via ____(fill in the blank with anything but person to person). gone are the days where people actually got to know eachother, now they date online, profile themselves and put their life out there on facebook, etc.
and dont start me on GPS thingies...i cant stand them if i was lost in the dessert i would wait until the north star came out and follow it lol. people drive like lunatics trying to obey those GPS things! you can add car DVD players to the annoyance list too
There is definitely a bit of a backlash in academia against technology ("Is Google making us stupid" - an article in the Atlantic Monthly that came out in '08. Just an aside - hysterical because when I went to the article, there was a list of "twitter, facebook, share, comment, blah, blah, blah, just beside the article. Rather funny, I thought!). It focuses on Google, but really it's about technology in general.
I think learning to set limits - when to turn off the TV or the videogame or the computer is key - and being able to spend time without checking one's phone or facebook or twitter is VERY healthy.
It's increasingly more difficult to really 'get away' from technology. I suppose that concerns me even more - that we won't be able to truly turn it all off and get away because there will always be a signal somewhere.
I admit that I have an iPhone and am very connected to things, but when I'm at work, my personal phone is generally turned off or on mute and I would never take it into the classroom. I like that teaching really forces me to be "in" the moment, so that's a definite time when I'm not connected (unless my students are watching a great music video by Maná or Juanes...).
i'm with you, fearful of new technologies. i can't do anything on my blog to save my life besides uploading a picture.
i feel very comfortable with the ways things are and am resistant to change as well. i'm much more comfortable with plans as opposed to spontaniety. *sigh*
I tend to be all over new technologies, and am kind of a gadget geek. BUT I have really been frustrated as I've noticed more and more ADD style tendencies, it goes beyond mere procrastination to just plain distraction when there are so many sites to check, updates to look for, postings to scroll through. I always have four or five windows open on my screen, and average about 7 tabs open in each of my two browsers. Really trying to make a conscious effort to focus on one thing at a time more often.
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