Image from Christopher Chan

Technology is a fantastic thing, but it’s also a beast of burden. It advances our lives (and our species) but it also cripples our independence.

Technology is both friend and foe.

For example:

Years ago, I was dating someone who didn’t know how to use the “old-fashioned” kind of toaster (you know – the one with the slits for the toast and the oblong black knobs that you push down) because his household used a more technologically advanced type of contraption (when did things like making toast need to become so complicated?). Surprised by his lack of common sense, I then took a few moments to give him the necessary toasting instruction he so desperately needed.

So get this…

I haven’t used a land-line on a regular basis for years (I only use my cell) and when I do use a land-line, I sometimes find myself having extreme difficulty with it. For example, I tend to forget that I need to dial “1” before the area code when dialing long distance (and was shocked when I discovered one now must dial “1” before everything!). Half the time I’m looking for a send button where none exists and wonder why in hell I can’t find the damn thing and then wonder the exact same thing about the end button when finishing a call. Basically I’ve been just as much of an idiot as the guy who couldn’t figure out the toaster, it just took me a little longer to get there.

Would you have ever guessed that you couldn’t “survive” with out the internet 20 years ago? Or without the ipod 10 years ago? Of course you didn’t. We milled about happily listening to our cd’s in Walkmans (while still hanging on to cassette tapes in case that whole cd phenomenon didn’t pan out so well). We were perfectly fine (if not happily eager) to call a friend on a land line instead of texting (or even picking up the phone without caller I.D.). We would actually sit down and hand-write letters with tools called pens and vehicles named paper and we would go to the library to look up whatever it was that we needed to know. We actually read newspapers and brought our resume’s into our desired places of employment. Things have advanced so quickly in this world that it is almost difficult for me to picture a life without all of it….and I’m not saying that’s a good thing. I suppose I wonder (as do many others) …has all of this “connection” made us more disconnected? Has it made us less social and civil toward one another? Has it made us as a people less receptive toward other people?

There are certain technological advancements of which I have stubbornly fought against. Take GPS for example: I’m a map and atlas kind of girl. I hate blind navigation –  therefore, I will probably never get a GPS. I pride myself in being able to get anywhere from anywhere and being able to understand every symbol on a map. I traveled the country for a month with not much more than an atlas and my photo gear and guess what? I didn’t get lost. I even navigated myself out of a couple situations when there was a detour or a road closure. Things like that can be a little more difficult to do (as quickly) when you are depending on GPS and you aren’t really familiar with your current position in the first place. Plus, I like to have and idea of where I am going: the names of surrounding towns, the routes that are close by, whether or not the area is heavily populated, etc.

But that’s just me.

There are some guns that I will always stick to.