Mickey's Musings
I have stories to tell.

Recently, I was prompted to write this to my son:

 

Dear son,

 

Please keep this in mind.  I am not of your generation. I am not as active on social media as you are.  I am not always checking for text messages, reading mail, hanging out on Facebook and Twitter.

 

My life is mostly not on the internet. I come from a time when the world did not revolve around electronic media. I have a home phone.  When I am at home, I can easily be reached. Otherwise, leave a message and I will respond to it when I am at home.

 

I also have a cell phone. It accepts text messages, but you may not always get immediate responses to texts or Facebook posts, because I am not always on Facebook and sometimes I am nowhere near my cell phone.  Sometimes I leave home and forget my cell phone because I don’t use it for much.  I carry my iPad always (I like the nice, big screen), but the phone slips my mind.  That doesn’t mean I’m ignoring you.  I love you dearly and I love hearing from you.  I would never ignore you.  I'm just not used to being constantly in touch with everybody on earth.

 

To be continuously tethered to technology feels like being trapped in a world full of incessant chatter to me. Some of it might be important.  Most of it is not.  When do you get peace?

 

What do you think we did before all this constant contact technology came along? We didn't have it and we did not die.  Please be patient and understand that I value your communications a great deal.  I will work on remembering to take my phone with me when I go out.  I’m just not perpetually connected to the cloud. I use all available technology and as soon as I see something from you, I respond.  I just don't use the technology constantly.

 

Love,

 

Mom  :- )  <===old-school smiley face!

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After writing that, I pondered the current world of information technology (IT) and its effects on daily life.

 

I believe we were told at the dawn of the technology craze that technology would make things easier for us.  People would have more time to relax and enjoy their families and friends because they would be able to produce twice the work in less time.  People would no longer be forced to spend hours researching at the library. Companies wouldn’t need to have humans busy getting paid for answering the phone.  No need to spell, or solve basic math problems on paper, or spend time with friends and family while actually in the presence of those other people, ever.   (Actually, that works pretty well for people who despise some friends and family members.)    Want to say something to Mom, downstairs?  Just send her a text.  Want to talk to your buddy sitting with you at the dinner table?  Text.  We would no longer need to learn how to write or study good penmanship in cursive.  (What?  Did you just call me something bad?)  We were supposed to be inching ever forward, closer and closer to the enlightened, utopian world where all that would be required of us would be to eat, drink, think and play.  Some would call that Eden.

What did we really get?  Now that tasks can be accomplished more quickly, employers expect much more work to be done by fewer and fewer employees.  Companies seem to be overrun by robophones that keep asking the same questions over and over because they cannot understand you, and then dump you down into the bit bucket that twirls you around in circles with all the other unfortunates until you give up.  You can never get a human to talk to.  If you do get connected to a company that employs humans, you are so startled and grateful to hear a human voice answer the phone that you stammer, “Are you real?”

Everyone wants everything immediately.  Instant gratification is a must.  Doing more work with fewer people does not encourage relaxing, enjoying, or spending extra time with anyone.  In fact, at the end of a grueling day many people just want to go home, start stripping off clothes at the door, take a relaxing shower (or bath) and just relax.  But then there are household duties to perform.

Research at a Library?  What’s that?  Although I love reading on my kindle or iPhone, I had to learn how to look up and find books in the library at school.  Walk before you run. 

Spell?  “cnt u se I gd splr?”  Math?  Try this… Go to the store and buy something that costs something like $1.26.  Give the cashier $5.26 and just watch.  Penmanship?  Writing?  Why?  That’s what I have a laptop for.  Cursive?  Wow, that looks like scribbles.  You mean you used to communicate like that?

And here’s one of my favorites, “Why do I have to remember anything when I have a laptop and an Ipad?”

Sigh… so much for “enlightened utopia”.

I’m a techy kind of person myself.  I love my computer, my laptop, and my iThings.  I like all things gadgetry.  But I believe we need to know the basic things first, then enhance our knowledge with technology.  After all, what happens if the electricity doesn’t work and you can’t recharge your batteries, or the cell towers are out, or (God forbid) the internet crashes and burns?