Life before computers.

[taco_harvell]

I was just pondering somethings I have read recently both here and other places on the internet. The question keeps coming to mind "Have computers really given us a better quality of life?". Before computers we actually visited friends now in many cases we "keep in touch" through emails and facebook. I know I used to come up with all types of things to keep me busy now i look for things online or on the computer to keep me busy.

I am not saying computers are bad don't get me wrong, some of the greatest things that's happened in my life were made possible by computers and the internet. I also am not saying anyone should quit using them because i for one would miss ya'll if you did.  I just wonder though if some aspects of our lives were better before all this technology became part of our lives.

I am not even sure this makes sense, just somethings I am pondering tonight.

[Lynx]

It depends on how much you are "plugged in."  In Doonesbury (a comic strip) they recently ran a whole week of two guys meeting for lunch, but spending the whole time playing with their smartphones.  At one point one of them sent the other a text "Hey meet me for lunch if you have time."  "Dude I'm right across the table from you."  "Sorry - spaced on your coordinates for a minute there."  Sadly this is not exaggeration... some people spend the whole day compulsively keeping track of the world.  Twitter is currently the arch-typical model for being able to keep track of your "friends" to the point that you have no real life.

Me, i see my friends a lot.  I'm about to see a lot of them at church tomorrow.  My Grandma comes home Monday so I'll get to see her again (after too, too long.)  Our whole family gets together for family dinners at the drop of a hat - any hat - and we all have a good time, with nary a text message being sent.  Not that there is a no-texting rule at family dinners (there's not) but we're just busy having fun, enjoying the company (and the food!) 

The difference is in whether or not a given person has a real life.  People with no lives bury themselves in "stuff" to avoid having to face the fact that they have no real reason to keep living.  They wrap themselves in soap operas, watching every one that is aired, video taping them, discussing them with their friends.  They keep the music playing all their waking hours with earbuds at max volume.  They plunge into multimedia headfirst, keeping updated on news, what people are doing on FaceBook (yes I know a lot of you here have FaceBook, but some people are spending their whole LIVES on it,) Twittering, etc.  What it boils down to is this - to drown out the quiet voice asking them what they are doing with their lives, they turn up the volume on whatever distractions they have at hand.  It has been this way since long before computers.  Computers just made it easier to do.

In the meantime I do like how I can download the latest version of my favorite audio editor as soon as it is up for downloading, and my life would be less without this forum and some good friends on Yahoo IM.  Technology is not a problem for me because I use it, it does not dictate what I do. 

[Heather]

 

Granted I hop on YouTube to help me with knit and crochet things. And I search Amazon for books. But this is why for the most part I will not hook up the Internet at home and just have it on my phone.