Monday, October 1, 2012

My love/hate relationship with technology.

So after having yet another issue with my high speed internet, the second in less than 5 days, which got me really really angry I backed off for a moment and thought to myself "Technology has given us so much but it has also taken away from us even more."
And then I realized how true that thought of mine was, I mean sure now a days I can have a conversation with my mother that lives in a completely different country, I can see her on my computer screen, I can send her a text or an email that will get to her in a fraction of a second, I can have a US phone number set up for her and my grandmother which allows us to talk at any time day or night, I can keep in contact with my old friends, share memories with my whole family, they can see a picture right away without having to wait for me to print it and mail it, they can watch a video of my daughter dancing without actually having to come to my house to do so. I mean now a days I even have the ability to work from home, to play a game with other friends that are just not close enough to come and play a board game like scrabble, I can take classes from home, I can do research without having to go to a library and actually opening a book, it truly is amazing what we can do now a days versus what we could do back let's say 10 years ago, maybe a little more.

Yes, yes technology, more especifically the internet has opened doors that were not available 10-15 years ago, and as much as it has given us it has also taken a lot from us, I mean now a days I am able to see when my bus is going to arrive just by downloading an app on my phone it gives me an approximate time of arrival for the bus stop I am waiting the bus at, not only that but you can also get an app that will tell you exactly where the bus is, show you where you are at in the map and lets you see how close the bus is to your location, how fantastic huh! NOT, I cannot begin to tell you how many times I have missed the bus because I relied on one of those darn little apps, I am looking and think the bus is further than it actually is and then I realize that the app froze and I had no way of knowing, how many times the app said it was still another 5 min until the bus arrived but the bus was running a tad early so I missed it on that particular stop, all this always makes me want to say: What happened to the little booklets we had with the maps and the times for when the bus will pass on a major stop not on each and every single little stop, and what ever happened to actually paying attention to the road to know where to get off, I mean google maps on my phone gives me all the routes I need to take, it tells me where to get off and to top it off the little blue dot moves with me every time the bus moves, so all I have to do is watch the little blue dot and match it with the stop and boom! I am there, however that app tends to freeze too so a lot of times I have missed the stop and ended up having to walk a mile to get to the actual place I needed to get off and ended up missing my second bus which ended up making me late for whatever appt I had planned. Now my phone upgaded its operating system and I don't have google maps anymore unless I use my web browser and then of course that takes a lot longer to update when the bus is moving so it is even more difficult to figure it out; what am I saying? All I really have to do is ask the bus driver and they will know where I need to get off at, See? We can't even go ask someone something anymore because this cool things give us all the answers.
The other day I was sitting down in front of my computer and my daughter came over with her iPod touch (yes she is four and she has an iPod touch, no she is not spoiled but the plus side of technology is that there are a lot of things now that can help your kids learn which is why she has it) she opened up her maps app, and she said to me: Mommy where in the world are we? and all I did was press that little arrow that puts the blue dot right on the place we are at and said: We are right where the blue dot is, and she said: ohh ok. Now I am like WHAT??? What happened to getting a map of the world and showing her the country we live in, geting a map of the country and showing her the city and state we live in, then I thought: well I have no paper map, how sad is that! now a days who needs a map anyway when we have GPS, mapquest tells me exactly where I have to make a turn, but of course I have to say that app fails more times than not and I end up getting lost anyway, yet I still use it.
Ohh the days when you actually opened a map and mapped out your way and the routes and places you wanted to visit were highlighted or circled, now we have a machine telling us where we have to go, which turn to take, there is no thinking involved anymore. Now a days you see people walking with their phones in their hands looking down to the phone to see where the blue dot is and how close you are to the geen dot, then you get to the green dot and you can't find the place you were wanting to go to so you look around like a moron and instead of asking you keep looking in your phone until finally minutes later you realize that the darn place you were looking for is actually inside the building that is right behind you and has no markings, something you probably would have known ahead of time had you just called ahead and asked.
Ohh! remember those days where we actually had to go to a library to do some research, or had to get an encyclopedia to look up something? Now a days everything is on the darn internet, who needs books! yes is true is better for the planet, however there is also so much incorrect information on the internet that is now easier to find the wrong answer, not only that but there is also way too much information; remember the days where you actually had to go to the doctor to figure out what was wrong with you or if there was even anything wrong with you? Now a days people go on the internet, put in all the symptoms they are having and BOOM! you got a diagnosis, well you usually get about 20 diagnoses, and of course since most humans like to suffer we usually go for the uncurable disease that will kill us in 5 days that only happens to 1 in a billion people, all of which end up causing us a panic attack which we then confuse for a heart attack and suddenly 5 min later the ambulance is outside your house paramedics are coming in and you are being taken to the hospital where the doctor tells you that you are very healthy that all you had was an anxiety attack which can be mistaken by a heart attack and that all your other symptoms are just a normal cold, by this time you realize how much this whole emergency visit will cost you and now you are wishing you had that uncurable and deadly illness because you really don't want to add another bill to the pile of bills you already have to pay, especially when they have told you that you have nothing.
You know another thing technology has taken away from us: privacy, there was a day where you could only be reached by telephone, and I mean a landline, if you were not at home they either had to leave a message (if you had an answering machine) or they had to call back later. Now we have cell phone, email, skype, text message, all these things someone can contact you through; I mean when I really think about it, I have friends that call me and when I don't answer my cell phone they text me, and when I don't answer their text right away they email and when I don't answer their email they try skype, when I don't answer that they try facebook, until finally if I don't answer that they repeat the whole cycle until I do.  My mom is the worst, she does not call me but she sends me a text message every 3 seconds, I am answering her first hello and she is already on the 10th hello, and then I say: Mom, you have to wait at least 5 seconds for me to answer you, but she still does not get it, bless her heart I know she loves me but seriously! And to all the other people that call, text, email and do all that good stuff: if I don't answer is really because I am not available otherwise I would have answered, and me not wanting to talk to you or chat or text also means I AM NOT AVAILABLE.
Work, well what can I say, I love working from home and is great I am able to do my school work from home, but when something does not work or goes down, it is the most infuriating thing cause now you will get behind on school work, you will not be paid for the hours your internet or electiricty went out, and of course now you have less human contact than necessary which I have to say that after working from home for so long and being able to use the time I have now free because I don't have to commute to work so I can either read a book or catch up on my sleep, suddenly the outside world is not something I am very interested in.  With technology now a days people seem to be getting dumber and dumber, you have a person asking what 80 + 10 is and then another person getting out their phones so that they can use a calculator, remember the days where we actually had to learn basic math skills? Those days are gone, the computer does that for us, no need for a brain when you can just input everything on a small device and get the answer.
The worst thing that technology has taken from us is time with our families, actual family time, sure that each family should make time to spend away from technology and to share thoughts and stories, but now a days we get so caught up in reading the latest news, catching up with our friends online that we tend to forget to make that time, not only that but kids now a days are so dependent on technology that even when we do make time to talk they really are focused on how long the conversation will last cause all they want to do is check on what Justin Bieber has posted in the past 5 min that you were actually trying to have a conversation with them, and even when we now say well, we can always take it away, but now a days the schools are using technology more and more to teach, you see virtual schools now are more popular not only for universities but also for elementary, middle and high school.
Anyway as much as I love technology because it has allowed me to do things that otherwise I would not have been able to do if it did not exist, I also know that with everything it has given us it has also taken away a lot of things and made a lot of us more dependent on it than not, so much so that when it does not work like it is supposed to work it can cause anyone to get so angry that they might just explode.