I wish my memory worked differently. I’d like to be able to conjure up an accurate image of my consciousness from, say, 25 years ago. You know what 25 years means: No cellphones, no e-mail, no Internet, no social networking (except with an actual drink in hand), and only the most primitive of personal computers. What I want to answer is a single question: Was I as addicted to the future then as I seem to be now?
I ask this because I really enjoy a new update to my operating system, like the one I downloaded from Apple earlier this week. I find it surprisingly pleasing when one of my iPhone apps requests an update too. Every day I await, with anticipation, a long list of e-mail messages that could arrive at any second, and there are several people I’m really eager to get a text from. Those, too, could come at any time. Soon — even now — I could find my feed-list in Google Reader delightfully stuffed with newness. I am not a Twitterer. But I know the dismay the Twitter world must have felt during its service disruption last week.
When I think back 25 years, there just wasn’t that much to be waiting for. The phone might ring — and if you left home, you had to leave without it. The mail would come, and so might UPS or Federal Express. Someone might stop by on the spur of the moment. A fax perhaps? And that was about it.
I’ve always looked forward to the mail coming. I don’t know why. And now I live in a world where the mail comes constantly, ceaselessly, a world where I find myself dismayed by the slowdown in blog feeds over the weekend. I consider myself a moderate user of personal electronics. I almost never wear earbuds. And yet this constant foretaste of the future, this hunger for the next electronic blip, feels to me like a full-blown addiction.
Which is why I’d like a clearer picture of my old self. Was I a little more serene 25 years ago? Was there a little more silence inside my head? A little less expectation? Or was I leaning headlong into the future even then?
I thought this was a very interesting post from a friend of mine and it stood out so well that I does make way for something that I think that we all can relate with.
LOL! it's so true! how we all go into a frenzy when we have computer problems or our sites temporarily down for maintenance. i think as long as one has a healthy balance and is still out living life then it's all goood!
ReplyDeleteSame here, I love it yet it's something that I do like to balance but this was a right that I read and I really do both I am not online with the exception to this in the evenings and during the day I am off and on with things.
ReplyDeleteYet it's a reflection of life and a new era we are all within. Yet how we do it is by way of choice.
I still love getting a handwritten note in the mail the old fashioned way..but I do enjoy the convenience and speed of email. When my son was in Iraq he was even able to check fr e mail sometimes being that he was stationed on a base helped. Of course he loved the handwritten notes and care packages..
ReplyDeleteThere are stacks of journals I have with lots of words scribbled out..really charming. I love to write but I have gotten spoiled by the keyboard and the spell checks as well.
There is good with the internet that's the part I choose to hold on to and getting to meet wonderful people from so many different places. I enjoy looking through blogs and photos.
Interesting thoughts here you have posted. Thank you!
Me as well, and reading a newspaper early in the morning and the touch of it. I enjoy writing but how my handwriting has changed due to a keyboard not kidding. Yet there are pros and cons and I believe that there is good reason with this as but within balance.
ReplyDeleteThe write was not my own it was a blogging friend that really has some very interesting writings that she does. This one stood out for me as now and then you stand back and look at things in a fun retrospective manner.
This is her site > http://starfishred.multiply.com/
Hi Jack, this is a great blog, thank you for posting it here.I know of Heidi, through her incredible photography of course. It was a pleasure to read it.
ReplyDeleteShe really does have a great way of writing things and this one was particularly interesting Deb.
ReplyDeleteOh my... What is a letter? lol
ReplyDeleteI used to send letters to my best friend. We got about 400! Not teling you lies! they were so creative...wow! Some day i will tell you about them.
It's a bit like morphine or heroin, isn't it? The more you get, the more you want. It's an addiction like any other, I fear.
ReplyDeleteNice photo you have posted to accompany this.
ReplyDeleteAs I replied to Heidi, I think one often waited (hoped) for the phone to ring.
Yes, it's important to do some reflection on what the new inventions do to us. I gladly admit I use them and enjoy the new possibilities, but I do try to control instead of being controlled by them. For example, I absolutely refuse to be available all the time through my cellphone.
ReplyDeleteThe big difference between 25 years ago and now, is that the world was smaller then, it was more a life with a feeling of a "here and now".
Anyhow, we can't go back, and have to find a way to deal with it in a way that makes sense to us.
Very well put! Joe and I talk around that subject now and then. Life moves very fast now. We seem to have lost the ability to relax - kick back - take it easy. No wonder kids today are so hyper!!
ReplyDeleteVery true. How ever did we leave the house without a cell phone and know where we had to be and with whom?
ReplyDeleteI admit the new innovations are exciting, but I sometimes wish they did not exist. I want my kids to get outside and PLAY more instead of looking at screens so often. (and yes, I do send them out to play, but these toys make it difficult!)
ReplyDeleteDeb I know you did we all have friends within our circles...I loved this write she can place things on that really do make you think.
ReplyDeleteI had went there and back and when I got there she said "yes", so after two days I said ok Jack why not!
There are many that ironically have trusted me by way of authenticity. I arrived home today and the first thing I did was read my mail as well as check the real mail.
The real mail was all spam! :)
I have had mail from United States, China, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Australia....I have them all placed within a special place and I do write to others as well.
ReplyDeleteI love ordinary mail, I have kept each and everyone. Anna way back before the last two years it was a very special things to say the least.
In a way I felt as I mentioned to you like Padre Juanito, but I still believe Pen Pals are something that is rather neat. For one, a very good writer sent me a book.
And he is a tremendous writer.
I could as well write on this but I think that we all have our own ways that we do this and yet at the same time I find that it's enjoyable within the trust that we have with those we deem as friends.
Cal there have been two time that I have just stopped it and went about things without it. So I think it can be addictive - but cant anything really if we wished, I know right now I am addicted to enjoying this within the evenings but if it was all taken away - so be it, yet that is a contradiction as I do truly enjoy this.
ReplyDeleteI have never done morphine or heroin - but if this is my vice within a part of the day. Then so be it.
DJ, when I get talking well that is an issue onto itself.
ReplyDeleteGlad you have as she is a great writer but the phone there too is a time where I will turn my cell as well as my lan line off.
Do you want to talk at some time if so let me know as I have done it within a courteous manner. I think that men and women can write/talk in a genderless way.
Hmm the last time I talked in basic french was this time last year - I kid you not.
However I do believe with time you come to know people much better. (I think you know what I mean)...The fonts don't replace the voice for me you or anyone within here.
Yes, I remember back then before going out me and three friends of mine did not have the internet and we would pick up the telephone book and one would be designated to make the choice and for new years we would call some place and person in the world (not kidding) and wish them a happy new year. Those were the days! Yet I think those that are between 35 and 50 have seen a vast transition. But as you say you can't look back. But now and then you can, we learn from the past and our recollections have brought us to where we are now.
ReplyDeleteTerri, life moves faster now than it ever has. Usually life had a staging process as to how it moved forward, ironically computers where at one time only privy to a few areas that did not include the civilian world. Within it all I do have my ponders on the youth of today as they have not done "natural things",as much during especially within the formative years yet we many of us here can and understand the difference between it all.
ReplyDeleteI literally have Jenna I have not went that route as many. I am progressive yet by choice, I don't rely on a cell unless there is a time that I do. Ironically I ran into someone on this last weekend and I had to make a call and asked him if I could borrow his cell as I did not have mine and ironically he was just the same way without a cell.
ReplyDeleteTen years ago no one had a cell or most didn't. Go figure - we were able to get about then.
Don't get me wrong I think that cells are the greatest thing especially when travelling and they are a great thing in case of emergencies...
Have you noticed how Pay Phones are not around as much as they were?
Danni groom them up well. And they will make you proud.
ReplyDeleteIf I had children right now new innovations would come into play after the age of 13. And that is being liberal. I would not wish them to be backwards but within not having all of this maybe they would be ahead of the game - just a thought.
gosh what a lovely blog! worth the reading and with it the reminiscing. i love the pic to boot.
ReplyDeleteThe picture nor the write is mine but this really did have substance....
ReplyDeleteI have pen pals for this reason. It allows me to connect with technology, but it creates a boundary, so I remain connected in the tangible universe. Plus, it gives my letter opener a work out!
ReplyDelete