do you remember when you didn’t know who was calling you before you picked up the phone?
how about having to get up to change the channel on the tv?
or knowing where you’re going and planning to get there on time because you had no way to contact someone in-transit?
what about having to use the stove to heat up leftovers?
or having to plan to be home at 8pm on thursday night to watch your favourite show because if you didn’t, you would just plain miss it?
it seems i’m feeling a little nostalgic for all the things which have changed, just in my (short-ish) lifetime.
don’t get me wrong, i love tech. i barely remember how i lived without my microwave, tivo, iphone and digital everything. power windows in my car. a whole collection of movies and tv shows on dvd to watch anytime i want. hundreds of albums worth of music in my pocket wherever i go. i don’t think i’d willingly go back to those days, but still… there’s a sense that things were simpler. less busy. quieter and maybe even a little better.
all the distractions have entirely eroded my ability to concentrate. reading a book? c’mon! every few pages i have to put it down to check twitter or email or see why tivo’s recording something. oh, wait! that reminds me, i have to google [insert random thing here]! i miss uni-tasking. i miss not needing the internet in my pocket. i miss having extra outlets; not plug-juggling to get juice for whatever new gadget it is i just brought home.
there’s not really any place for me to go with this train of thought except into a shiny mag-lev future. unless there’s a giant EMP which fries all the transistors in all our tech, it’ll only get more gadgety and our kids won’t even believe us when we tell them stories about having to write letters on paper with sticks filled with coloured water.
oh, you darn kids. GIT OFF MY LAWN!
go awn, git! :)