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On the good old days.
Jul. 13th, 2009 10:06 pmI was just thinking recently about how technology has invaded our lives. Don't get me wrong...it can be a good thing. Technological advances in medicine have saved countless lives, missing children have been found, and let's face it, without the internets, I'd not have met many of you fine people.
But sometimes I seriously long for the simpler times. My parents do not own a computer, nor do they particularly want one. They only recently (within the past couple of years) acquired cell phones, however my dad still does not understand the concept of voice mail. But in a way, I really like going over to their house, because I feel virtually unreachable there. I used to be able to get a weak wireless signal on my laptop, but their neighbor who had the unsecured connection died recently and took his internets with him. I can hardly get a cell signal unless I'm sitting on the corner of my old bed, holding my breath, because evidently Erwin exists in some sort of black hole. However, when I stay with my parents, I go to bed at a decent hour, I generally get at least some sleep and I wake up (relatively) refreshed in the morning. Or at least as refreshed as I'm capable of being. When we get up, my mom, dad and I sit in the living room and we...talk. They drink coffee, I drink hot tea or cocoa and we just talk. And I really, really enjoy that. When we stay up at our cabin (look up the word "boondocks" in the dictionary and you'll see a picture of it), there's NO cell signal at all, NO internets, NO TV now that digital has taken over. My mom does have a radio and CD player, but you know what? When I stay up there, I rarely turn it on. What I DO, however do, is read and listen to the birds and enjoy the fact that it's really quiet and really dark. And I usually sleep like a baby up there.
I remember back when we weren't so accessible. If you weren't home and someone needed to get ahold of you, they just had to wait until you got back. Of course this was inconvenient if someone had, say, died or something and people needed to be notified. But rarely was this a huge problem. It was irritating when I was in high school and we didn't have things like voice mail or call waiting. If my mom was on the phone and I was expecting a call from my best friend or a boy I liked, I could whine and complain with the best of 'em. But I lived to tell the tale. We got voice mail when I was in college, and when I moved into my first apartment, I got Caller ID. I did not, however, start using the internets until 1997, and then it was only at work. My first cell phone was acquired in 1999 (for emergencies only, of course), and was the size and weight of a large brick. But that was the beginning of the end, I think. After that, it was all downhill and I became one of those constantly connected people. I like the convenience, yet hate it, all at the same time.
Kids today ("those young whippersnappers!!) have no idea what it's like to be slightly inaccessible. To be able to go somewhere and not be in constant contact. With things like Facebook and Twitter everyone knows what everyone else had for lunch and when we went to the bathroom last. And I admit, I get caught up in this, too. But do we really need to be that much in each others' back pockets? It's a double-edged sword, I suppose.
When I was little, summers were meant for playing outside when it was sunny and reading or drawing or playing the piano when it was rainy. Now, I can veg out in front of the computer for hours at a time and I sometimes feel as though it's rotting my brain. I miss the days when I used to read several books in the course of a week. Although I do read more now than I used to, I'm still nowhere near my old amount. And I miss it. But it's hard to just go back to that antiquated way of life.
That said, I think I'm going to go upstairs and dig out a book I've been putting off starting. The internets can wait.
But sometimes I seriously long for the simpler times. My parents do not own a computer, nor do they particularly want one. They only recently (within the past couple of years) acquired cell phones, however my dad still does not understand the concept of voice mail. But in a way, I really like going over to their house, because I feel virtually unreachable there. I used to be able to get a weak wireless signal on my laptop, but their neighbor who had the unsecured connection died recently and took his internets with him. I can hardly get a cell signal unless I'm sitting on the corner of my old bed, holding my breath, because evidently Erwin exists in some sort of black hole. However, when I stay with my parents, I go to bed at a decent hour, I generally get at least some sleep and I wake up (relatively) refreshed in the morning. Or at least as refreshed as I'm capable of being. When we get up, my mom, dad and I sit in the living room and we...talk. They drink coffee, I drink hot tea or cocoa and we just talk. And I really, really enjoy that. When we stay up at our cabin (look up the word "boondocks" in the dictionary and you'll see a picture of it), there's NO cell signal at all, NO internets, NO TV now that digital has taken over. My mom does have a radio and CD player, but you know what? When I stay up there, I rarely turn it on. What I DO, however do, is read and listen to the birds and enjoy the fact that it's really quiet and really dark. And I usually sleep like a baby up there.
I remember back when we weren't so accessible. If you weren't home and someone needed to get ahold of you, they just had to wait until you got back. Of course this was inconvenient if someone had, say, died or something and people needed to be notified. But rarely was this a huge problem. It was irritating when I was in high school and we didn't have things like voice mail or call waiting. If my mom was on the phone and I was expecting a call from my best friend or a boy I liked, I could whine and complain with the best of 'em. But I lived to tell the tale. We got voice mail when I was in college, and when I moved into my first apartment, I got Caller ID. I did not, however, start using the internets until 1997, and then it was only at work. My first cell phone was acquired in 1999 (for emergencies only, of course), and was the size and weight of a large brick. But that was the beginning of the end, I think. After that, it was all downhill and I became one of those constantly connected people. I like the convenience, yet hate it, all at the same time.
Kids today ("those young whippersnappers!!) have no idea what it's like to be slightly inaccessible. To be able to go somewhere and not be in constant contact. With things like Facebook and Twitter everyone knows what everyone else had for lunch and when we went to the bathroom last. And I admit, I get caught up in this, too. But do we really need to be that much in each others' back pockets? It's a double-edged sword, I suppose.
When I was little, summers were meant for playing outside when it was sunny and reading or drawing or playing the piano when it was rainy. Now, I can veg out in front of the computer for hours at a time and I sometimes feel as though it's rotting my brain. I miss the days when I used to read several books in the course of a week. Although I do read more now than I used to, I'm still nowhere near my old amount. And I miss it. But it's hard to just go back to that antiquated way of life.
That said, I think I'm going to go upstairs and dig out a book I've been putting off starting. The internets can wait.
