What would I do? I really can't imagine. How did any of us function before the Internet? I book all my hotel and flight reservations online. I communicate through email every day. Google is my answer to every question. When is my flight? What's the name of that song? Who sings it? How do you make a proper margarita? Where is that restaurant? What's on the menu?
However, sometimes all this technology--with all the possibilities it presents--just flat out overwhelms me. I do not own a smartphone, an iPad, or a Kindle, because I can't justify the expense and anyway I don't need them. Now, I think iPads are the coolest thing ever, and something deep down inside me really wants one. Not because it would address any kind of actual need, but just because they're so freaking cool.
But considering I don't even have time to read my books, play my guitar, or do all the writing I want to (not to mention fold the laundry), an iPad would really just be another thing I don't have time for, another underutilized tool in my life.
And sometimes our reliance on technology can be our downfall. Take my navigation system. Please. Seriously, you think this abandoned old office building right off the freeway is my destination? It's not, I assure you. This empty field--you think this is the hair salon I'm looking for? How many times have I vowed never to trust the thing again, and sworn that next time I'll use a map? I've been through this over and over, like that time I decided to break up with Mr. T.
Here's what I do like about technology. For all its potential for evil, its lack of warmth, its ability to infuriate us with lousy directions, technology can actually bring people together.
People who previously had no power are now able to mobilize. Those with too much power can be taken down a notch. Someone who feels utterly alone and misunderstood can find others out there who understand.
Or sometimes it simply brings together people who live close to each other and have something in common, but who never would have met in this fast-paced/car-centric/sit-in-your-house-and-watch-TV world we are living in. The other night--after a navigation debacle, I might add--I ended up having dinner and drinks with a couple of new friends I met through a facebook group. They originally met each other through Twitter.
There's nothing quite like sitting down to dinner and drinks on an outdoor patio with people you don't even know. By the end of the night I knew more about them than I do about some of my own relatives. Technology can never beat that. It can never replace face-to-face interaction.
But it can facilitate it.
Or sometimes it simply brings together people who live close to each other and have something in common, but who never would have met in this fast-paced/car-centric/sit-in-your-house-and-watch-TV world we are living in. The other night--after a navigation debacle, I might add--I ended up having dinner and drinks with a couple of new friends I met through a facebook group. They originally met each other through Twitter.
There's nothing quite like sitting down to dinner and drinks on an outdoor patio with people you don't even know. By the end of the night I knew more about them than I do about some of my own relatives. Technology can never beat that. It can never replace face-to-face interaction.
But it can facilitate it.
