Friday, May 9, 2008

Some Thoughts on Technology

Technology. I have a love/hate relationship with technology. I love when it simplifies my life. I hate when it’s just one more thing I have to learn when I was completely happy the way things were before! Seems most the time the latter is true.

I say sometimes that I’m a little Amish when it comes to technology. I don’t mean that in a prejudicial way….it’s just they have chosen to live in a time before technology was king and I can relate. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE electricity and don’t get me started on the wonders of indoor plumbing! I can‘t imagine my life without the internet, the cell phone is my friend and my relationship with Tivo is one I should be somewhat embarrassed about.

About 3 years ago I won a digital camera in a raffle. I took it out of the box, loaded the software and took a handful of pictures. Then it sat in a drawer for two years. I thought about getting it out, but why should I when my old friend Olympus was here. You have to understand, I was a bit of a photography buff when I was younger. I loved setting the camera functions and developing my own film and photos. The darkroom was quiet and serene. In high school I found a way to spend 4 hours of my school day in some form of photography. As a mom, I fell in love with scrap booking all those pictures of my babies. Accepting a digital camera into my life seemed to be disrespecting of something I loved. I love real photos and the smell of film fresh out of the canister. What my printer duplicates is just not the same. If I happen to shed a tear while looking through old photos, it could well ruin that printer inked memory for life.

So after two years in a drawer, a vacation looming, and a dead battery in the old Olympus, I broke down and learned to use the digital. I thought I was all smart and hip until I learned that my technologically advanced camera only held about 20 pictures and I would now need something called a memory card. What? Isn’t that what film is for? To hold our memories? So I hustled on down to Target and bought a memory card for all my digital memories. *sigh*

Now I can take pictures and I figured out how to load them into the computer. I can even send you a picture via email, but I would warn you: it will take up the full screen. I can’t seem to figure out how to make them small! My computer savvy aunt sent my a digital organizer for all my photos. I loaded it up and organized my photos by theme, date, people, pose, holiday, good smiles, bad smiles, with teeth , without teeth, at Grandma’s, at the soccer field….the list goes on and on! Honestly, I think a shoebox works better. Even so, when it comes to cameras, I have reluctantly come over to the side of technology.

Another area that I have slight problem with is that $2000 map in your car they call a “navigation system”. Who am I, Captain Kirk? Navigation is for sailors and pilots. I’m going to the store, it’s down the block. If I get lost, I probably shouldn’t be driving anyway. If I don’t know where I’m going, I look at a map first and jot down a couple of notes to help me get there. OK, I will admit the map I look at is called Mapquest , and I have it bookmarked, but I think I already clarified that I do love the internet.

I learned to read a map when I was fairly young. We took a lot of road trips, Sunday drives and moves across the country as a family. Since reading a book in the back of the Plymouth Fury made me a little nauseous, I took pleasure in glancing at a map. I loved getting out the Rand McNally, figuring the mileage to the next Stuckey’s rest stop, and telling my Dad which exit to take. $2.95 at the gas station, free on the internet, or 2 grand to be recessed in my dashboard…..hmmm, that’s an easy place to be Amish!

I like things that I can use for more than one purpose. Multitasking…good! But a phone that is a camera, a music player and can send email? I’m overwhelmed at that much technology in an 1/8 inch thick metal box. To begin with, you already know how I feel about cameras. Putting into a phone, just twists the knife a little further. I still haven’t completely gotten over the fact that I had to replace all my albums with CDs. Now I’m supposed to download my music?? AND put it in my phone? That means I have no cover, no art, no liner notes, nothing too hold onto that relates to my music. It makes no sense to me.

I’ll tell you a little secret. Back in the recesses of my closet, I have a stack of albums. Every album I ever owned (except the few that a roommate’s boyfriend permanently borrowed) is stacked in the back of my closet, with liner notes intact. I have the art from every album cover memorized. And thanks to all the bands who printed their lyrics, I can sing along confidently (although not in key). I’m still not sure about the second line in the chorus of Blinded By the Light, but that’s because I own the 45.…(that’s old speak for a single, you youngsters). Unfortunately, lyrics didn’t come with 45‘s. Which bring my to another deep dark secret. I also own a large box of 45‘s .

As you might well have guessed, my phone doesn’t take pictures and I don’t know how to text. I do not own any form of an MP3 player. A blackberry is something I pick along the creek on my Grandma’s house.

I do like modern conveniences. I like progress. I think it’s cool we can fly far into space and send pictures back to earth. I’d just prefer that technology be used to make things simpler, not more complicated; that it stay out of my art and music; and, until it can figure a way for me to eat anything I want without gaining weight, it better get out of my food! (that’s a line for a future post, I think!)

No comments: