A Writer’s Take on Technology: Lovin’ It and Hatin’ It
I’m writing this blog article on an handy, fantastic piece of technology that I’m so glad I own. It’s been a lifesaver in many ways: An Alphasmart 3000. For those of you unfamiliar with Alphasmarts, they are operated by four AA batteries (they last forever, by the way), and the Alphasmart holds about 100 pages total (my Alphasmart isn’t one of the newer ones that have more bells and whistles). I often compose a chapter or two on this light-weight device before I transfer the new pages I’ve composed that day to my computer. The Alphasmart is great for keeping me away from the internet and email.
So…what’s my point? Well, I realized just today that I have a love, hate relationship with technology.
It’s amazing when ideas form for articles for blogs. This one came to me after an exhausting day of trying to fix my computer after a brand new virus viciously attacked it. I had virus protection from my high-speed internet, but apparently this one slipped passed anyway. Rather than gnashing my teeth—believe me, I was tempted—I comforted myself with the knowledge that almost everyone who owns a computer can expect to suffer a computer virus at one time or the other. It was my time…my luck of the draw. Crappola happens.
Anyway, after not solving the problem, I consoled myself yet again by watching a favorite new program, and the idea for this blog sprang to mind. Amazing how stress can spur creativity. Stress usually cuts my creativity to ribbons, but not this time.
On Monday nights, I enjoy watching a favorite British program, LIFE ON MARS (BBC America) about an English bloke (a copper) in Manchester. He’s hit by a car and transported back to Manchester in 1973. This program also started my noggin thinking about technology as well as what it does for and to our world.
A huge chunk of my writing life revolves around access to the internet and email. Realistically speaking, in the writing world today, is difficult to do this job without an internet presence such as a website and without access to email. I know there are some authors that don’t have a website and spend virtually no time promoting their work on line in chat rooms or on other writing/reader related loops. There’s nothing wrong with that if it’s how you want to handle your career. I don’t want to do without my webpage, my chats, my email, etc.
Yet there are aspects of my life where I refuse to come into the twenty-first century. For example, my cell phone is for emergencies and for long distance phone calls. I rarely turn it on when I leave the house. When I leave the house, I don’t want anyone to call me. When I see the way others are tied to their phone…when they drive with a phone to their ear, or the phone rings while they are shopping, I realized they are slaves to those phones. Why do they insist on being connected twenty-four seven? Someone once asked me if I didn’t feel “out of touch” without the cell phone turned on when I left the house. I thought about it. Conclusion? Hell, no, I don’t feel disconnected. I feel free. I lived years without having a cell phone. In fact, I didn’t actually get one until 1994.
What on earth did we do before cell phones? Before instant messages, instant email, high-speed internet, MP3 players, high-definition television…you name it. I’ve never been terrified of technology, but I have noticed one thing. The more technology I have, no matter what the equipment is, the more complications I can experience the moment the technology hoses up. And as I discovered once again when my computer had a virus, if someone tries to assist me with the technology, there is a good chance whatever they try will screw up something else.
I say this half tongue in cheek, because I am only half in love with technology. For every action, there is a reaction, and for every piece of technology added to my world, there is the chance it will cause some stress in my world. Technology is wonderful, yet when it fails, we’re brought down to a level that reminds us how our world worked before said advancement arrived. Watching the program set in 1973 reminded me of when I was eleven years old and about ready to enter junior high. Life was terribly complicated and terribly simple when I was eleven. The things that concerned me, as an eleven year old, seem now to be wretchedly uncomplicated. For those of us old enough to remember before personal computers in almost every home, I doubt that most of us would want to return to the dinosaur days. The good old days are never as good as we like to recall. Yet there was a freedom that we’ve lost to our advancements, and it takes a computer virus to make this writer somewhat nostalgic for once-upon-a-time.
You’ll be happy to know that most of my computer problem is solved, but two weeks later it isn’t completely solved. There’s still repair to be done. I’m finding myself writing more on the uncomplicated Alphasmart these days. How do you feel about technology? How do you find it helpful or unhelpful?
